| New Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands(10)– Chatham Islands |
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New Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands – Chatham Islands
As we bumped over the sea returning to the Enderby I could see the ship was attracting a number of circling and soaring albatrosses. It turned out that most were Buller’s Mollymawks, one of the small albatrosses that are endemic to the New Zealand islands, including Chatham. I found their presence worth commenting on because they were also floating near the ship and would paddle around looking at us as much as we studied them. I was sure they hoped we were a fishing boat and would be discharging something tasty.
We dropped anchor in Waitangi Harbour. The evening sky was clear and many of us sat on deck for the first time since the cruise began three weeks ago enjoying the warm weather,
In the morning we went an hour inland from Waitangi to the Tuku Reserve. Three generations ago a resident family established the Reserve to show how the island might have looked had it not been settled,
And then it was time for that inevitable last zodiac ride. Surprise, the old winds were back and the bumps and splashes insured a good soaking returning to the Spirit of Enderby. I took it as a celebration of the adventure and a reminder of how much I like these small barriers that cause so many people to have second thoughts about venturing into this uncommon world.
Two days later we sailed into Otego Harbour and the Dunedin wharf where the customs people cleared us from “wherever wilderness” and back into New Zealand.”
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Since Pyramid Rock is their only home their numbers have not been great and it is known that in very bad storms their numbers have been greatly reduced in the past. Several surveys, originally from the air and in 2003 a ground count, estimated their numbers to be about 11,000 breeding age birds. Today it is believed that there are only about 2,500 breeding pairs. The most obvious thing and perhaps most admired characteristic of albatrosses are their flying skills and ranges. To me each species seems much more distinctive for their heads and beaks. Chatham Island Mollymawks have a chrome-yellow beak worthy of the richest artist’s acrylic paint or vice versa. 
The Captain anchored off Pitt Island to spend the night. Early the next morning we launched zodiacs and cruised along the coastlines of Pitt Island and some of the many rocks poking out of the sea. The weather was much more moderate and not as difficult as all the other Islands we had visited. We were out of the roaring ‘40s and this moderate weather may partly account for the hundreds of years humans have lived on Chatham Island itself. Moriori and later Maori are thought to have arrived shortly after the “Great Fleet” of Polynesians in about 1350. 
Lieutenant Broughton, commanding the small tender “Chatham,” landed on the Islands in 1791 and claimed them for England.
Once aboard we weighed anchor and started across Pitt Strait to Chatham Island. The sea was calm, winds light and it was relatively warm on deck. The weather reported we had definitely departed from the Sub Antarctic. Midway to our destination a pod of Orcas, killer whales, surrounded our ship and for about an hour they circled us and would pass beneath the hull of the Enderby. The Captain shut down the propellers to avoid injuring the younger members of the pod who were fearless in demonstrating their skills. The whales swam by us on their backs. They porpoised by in family formations. Parent whales took young under the ship and emerged on the other side.
Waitangi town lights and the starry night sky. I do not miss people generated lights when I am in the “wherever wilderness,” but the first night back to a gateway small town is nearly always fondly memorable for some reason.
farmed and its endemic environment radically altered. Humanity has had significant impact on all elements of the Chatham Islands. The environmental history and description of Chatham Island would rightfully be longer than all my blogs put together. I do not mean to understate or fail to describe the way this world has become. I was very pleased to wander along the meandering stream, through a fern and tree forest, and to see many Red-Crowned Parakeets and rare Chathams Island Pigeons.
