RestoringParadise
December 5 - 21, 2008
Chapter 10. Campbell Island
Our trip to this southernmost of the Sub Antarctic Islands took two nights and a day and we were probably making between 10-15 knots most of the way. We did have some choppy seas and were advised to “keep one hand for the ship” as a safety measure. Since the daylight hours were spent in lectures with some breaks for resting in the cabin, we also found it a challenge to remainstill and comfortable in bed reading. However, we were never seasick or anxious about the sea conditions. As a matter of fact, our ship’s crew and naturalists kept telling us how lucky we have been with the weather throughout the trip and we believed them, filled with hope that this luck would continue. Meanwhile, outside on deck the temperatures were in the 50s but the wind chill did make that feel a bit more biting.
The Campbells are one of the five groups of uninhabited islands known as the New Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands. No two of them are the same geologically or biologically. Campbell Island is the most southerly and 410 miles south of the South Island. The east coast of the island is deeply indented with fjord-like bays and inlets, the longest one our destination at Perseverance Harbor. This fjord is like a crooked finger: when the boat enters the passage, it is not possible to see the harbor itself. The west coast is predominantly formed of high and steep granite cliffs where many seabirds nest. The island is comprised of 27,844 acres. The island sits atop a shield volcano, or perhaps is more accurately labeled a shield volcano.
Campbell Island is usually characterized as cool, cloudy, wet and windy. The island basks under bright sunny skies for only 650 hours a year! For 215 days of the year, there is less than a single hour of sunshine! There are 4.76 feet of rain every year and moisture finds the island at least 325 days a year.
The island is often raked with wind gusts of 50 knots, so often those winds occur at least 100 days out of every year. Variations in daily and annual temperatures are small and the mean average temps move between 40F to 52F. It was a chilly 46F degrees when we offloaded onto the Zodiacs; it did warm up a bit as the day went on however.
Our understanding of the early human history on this island would never have prepared our senses for the pristine glory of the rocky and lonely outpost just above the Southern Ocean. In the early 1800s the island was the scene of seal hunting (until the fur seals were nearly exterminated there) and whaling (until overhunting reduced their numbers to near extinction in that locale).
The slaughter continued until the early 1840s. Afterwards, the island was left pretty much undisturbed and might have recovered on its own until 1896 when it was leased out for sheep and cattle husbandry. That almost fatal attack on the vegetation continued until 1931 when the lease ran out and the government decided not to reissue such rental agreements.
An automated weather station was placed on the island that had to be checked infrequently. In 1954, the government gave all the islands of the Campbell group National Reserve status. All feral cattle and sheep were finally removed by 1984.
When DOC was given jurisdiction over the parks, reserves and forestlands, the agency also became responsible for these Sub Antarctic land bits. A massive eradication program was begun to clear this island of Norway rats that had been present for 200 years. Campbell was declared rat-free in 2003! It was and is the largest rat eradication success story in the world.
Since that time, the native invertebrates, vegetation and seabirds have been steadily returning and re-establishing themselves much more quickly than scientists dared wish. The Hooker’s sea lion is still endangered for reasons the researchers are even now struggling to understand. In the interim, they are protected and monitored on all these islands.
The fur seals rebounded with a huge success, probably due to lessened competition with whales for food. Whales are also increasing their numbers now that hunting is prohibited in these waters and their numbers are slowly but surely rising as well. Campbell Island teals (a native duck) have been successfully relocated from the smaller rocky outpost islands and they too are making a steady comeback from local extinction. DOC is justly proud of the success it has attained in all these islands and on Campbell in particular.
With statistics whirling around in our anxious minds and mixed with the warnings staff were giving us that many times it is impossible to make a landing on Campbell because of the weather, we all stood alert and apprehensive as the Clipper Odyssey made its way through the long fjord up to the beautiful harbor. The scenery was wild and magnificent with huge cliffs decorated with columnar basalt and madly slashing tussock grasses. What a magnanimous gift Mother Nature bestowed on us. We easily clambered aboard the Zodiacs to speed to shore over a calm sea with bright blue sunshine showering down on the island and on us, its grateful visitors.
We were greeted by a feisty Hooker’s sea lion as we made our way from the landingsite to the boardwalk. He wasnot reallyaggressiveanddid not impede our progress as we walked on the iron sections of the pathway through the very dense bushes and onto the meadow with its whitewashed wooden portion. The path was about 18 inches wide and we had been warned not to step off the pathway unless absolutely necessary.
The boardwalk made our walk very easy despite the fact that it occasionally “stepped up” little hills. We really appreciated the work of DOC personnel who had put it in when we reached its ending about midway towards our destination.
So, what are “megaherbs?” The cool and detached scientific definition says that megaherbs are herbaceous perennial wildflowers endemic to these Sub Antarctic Islands. They are very large plants with huge leaves and enormous flowers of unusual colors.
The scientists add that these plants can grow so large due to the fact that they evolved in the absence of herbivorous predators mammalian or insectivorous. Herbaceous is defined as having the quality of plants whose stems do not produce woody textures or structures. They also tend to die back each season but return when the growing conditions needed reappear.
All the scientific wording escaped our minds as our eyes were dazzled by the beauty of the meadows blanketing the valley as we struggled along muddy, slippery paths crisscrossed by the grasping leaves and tendrils of the often waist-high plants around our ankles and knees! There were the brilliant fuzzy yellow spires of the golden lily at least 8 inches tall. They were so numerous that from a distance the whole landscape appeared to be golden-yellow.
But interspersed among them were the enormous deeply erose faces of the lavender Campbell Island daisies, staying closer to the ground but clustering together to create banks of beauty! Darker purples interrupted the panorama in the form of chrysanthemum-like flowers on the Campbell Island carrot plant. And if that were not enough, the myriad greens of all the growing things were rampant and tangled and gorgeous, with broad leaves, straight and narrow ones, round and flat ones! The scene was absolutely mindboggling and eye-popping. This magnificent “Indian blanket” of colors stretched away in every direction we could see, up hillsides and down in deeper gullies. No wonder we carednot a whitabout scientific jargon then.
What could have improved upon this primordial unsullied scene of Nature’s prodigal gifts? Well, we got that something else too—in the form of Southern Royal Albatross on their tussock-based nests, dotting the whole scene with purest white patches in among all the colors!
These huge birds were in mid- incubation of this year’s eggs, so they sat serenely and patiently and absolutely fearless as we tramped and tripped and fell along the path. Some were close enough to the path that we could have reached out to touch their silvery- white feathers if only that hadn’t been forbidden. But of course we would not have wanted to take a chance of disturbing one of these dedicated parents so that it left the egg to cool and kill the chick developing inside. Albatross have enough to challenge their survival without human interference on this reserve—but more about the risks Albatross face later.
Our way became more laborious as we tussled our through the tussocks and the other splendid megaherbs. The walk up to the ridge of Mount Lyall took about an hour and all the while we were in awe at the superb scenery, sharply outlined by the continuing blessed sunshine.
Well, we got one more wonderful treat as we walked through the magnificent landscape—the antics of the New Zealand pipit!
This little wisp of a bird, so saucy and curious, popped up and down in the megaherbs while we smiled and laughed and tried to get photos of him. He’s not so colorful as the plants around him, but he is so hyperactive that he’s in constantmotion flapping hiswings, stomping his tiny feet, jumping in place,
darting hither and yon, that you cannot miss him. As you can see from the photo, we had to be careful not to put a boot on him. He also is a success story of the island because he is a ground-nester and could not survive the assaults of the rats before they were eradicated. Now he has come back to his home and is living well and even merrily where Nature intended him to be!
Returning to the Odyssey was bitter-sweet. The visit to this wonderful island was thoroughly enjoyable but it was hard to tear ourselves away from the experience knowing that it was truly a once-in- lifetime privilege. However, the Expedition Leader had another special experience in store for us in the afternoon; a Zodiac trip around the coast of Campbell and among the rock stacks, skerries, and arches standing out from the main landmass.
Incredibly, the blue sky continued to blaze above our heads and sunlight carefully delineated every angle of rock, every waving tussock grass, every serpentine piece of giant kelp flowing back and away with the tide, every feather flick on the exposed ledges, every direction change in the layering of the geologic strata, every shadow under an rock arch or an outcrop.
On the Zodiac cruise, we saw many seabirds as well, some a-wing over us and others standing unsteadily on rock slides plunging towards the seawaters, others on the protuberances: endemic yellow-eyed penguins with an estimated population of only 4000-5000 pairs, Eastern Rockhopper penguins all jaunty with their yellow crests and red eyes, lightly mantled sooty albatross, rare Campbell Albatross and grey-headed ones too.
Can ‘t remember whether or not I have defined “endemic” before: it means existing only in this place, so the yellow-eyes are only in New Zealand, nowhere else in the world.
While we were on the Zodiacs we had a sea-based peak experience—a pod of about 10 dolphins around the boats in hunting behavior. It was really quite astonishing to watch the dolphins perform what we always thought of as “circus” tricks in a Sea World setting leaping completely out of the water, turning flips both backwards and forwards in mid-air, swimming at great speeds in circles just under the water surface, rising out of the water vertically practically standing on their tails! It was awesome.
The noise they made falling back into the water and hitting the surface smartly with their tails must have aided them in herding the school of fish they were hunting.
This group technique is designed to get the school to form a tight ball for easy slicing by the dolphins as they feed on the fish.
So we learned that the tricks we see these sea mammals perform for us in captivity are based on their natural behaviors. Again, we thank New Zealand and DOC for keeping these territorial waters under their protection! Such a wonderfully fun time it was to observe these intelligent and acrobatic creatures.
Now a word about albatross conservation: it seems appropriate since Campbell Island is one of only two places left in the world where you are allowed to walk among these birds on their nests. (The other place is much further down towards Antarctica near South Georgia Island.) About 8,000 pairs of the Southern Royal Albatross nest on Campbell, the biggest gathering of this species anywhere.
Male and female parents spend 5-6 days at a time incubating the eggs, trading off so the sitting bird can go off to sea for a meal because it does not eat during its 6-day stint. Their parental duties take 240 days from egg to fledging the chick. With such a huge and lengthy effort required to raise one chick, it is clear why these birds usually breed just once in two years. That
aspect of their life cycle is one of the major challenges in their conservation; they do not reproduce themselves often enough to keep up with the loss of adult birds chiefly because of long line fishing and drift net fishing.
These types of fishing involve very long lines with shiny bits of aluminum or other material attached to the lines at varying spaces. The shiny material attracts the albatross (many species of them, not just the Royals) and they became ensnared in the lines and drown. In addition to their large size, albatross exhibit other superlatives: they are the largest flying birds with the longest wingspans, they live the longest (up to 50 years), they have the longest incubation period of any birds, and they fly the longest distances of any birds (the equivalent of 18 trips back and forth to the moon in their lifetimes). It is not unusual for an albatross to fly 600 miles in a single day.
Most amazingly, these birds make this prodigious trip using fewer wing flaps than a sparrow uses when flying across a street! And don’t forget, when fledged a young bird does not return to land for 6-7 years; they are on the wing that entire time except when they settle for a rest on the sea surface. They sleep while they fly: one half of the brain sleeps while the other stays awake. Albatross return to their birthplace to conduct their own contributions to the survival of their species.
They meet one another while around 5 or 6 and beginto perform the “gamming” or mating rituals that will finally help them choose a mate which will be their partner for life. But actually breeding usually doesn’t start until they are closer to 10 years old. Another problem with maintaining a stable population.
So what is DOC doing to help these magnificent birds? The care that is taken in keeping Campbell Island predator free has already been discussed, as has the policy of allowing very few visitations to the island. There are 24 species of albatross (there is some discussion among taxonomists about the exact number, but this is close enough for our purposes) and 14 of them breed in New Zealand. Astoundingly, 40% of all Albatross live in the areas we
visited on this trip. New Zealand, through the work of DOC, is working to prevent long line and drift net fishing in its territorial waters. New Zealand was a signatory to a treaty to end drift-netting as long ago as 1989. A levy is collected from all legal fishing operations in NZ territorial waters to help fund research to protect seabirds of all kinds. Part of DOC research involves satellite transmitters attached to birds to determine where they go and what happens to them.
Bird banding is also practiced for the same purpose. Another very important part of the DOC mission is to teach the public about these birds and the projects involved in the effort to protect them. The educational aspect has no doubt been most responsible for the enormous public support that DOC has earned for its many conservation activities. For instance, a bill to place a levy on fishing operations would probably have been unpopular among a certain portion of
New Zealanders and legislators would have been reluctant to pass such a piece of legislation. However, when a bigger percentage of the public voiced approval for the DOC recommendation, the lawmakers were emboldened to enact the law. In addition, New Zealand declared that the reach of its sea territory extends out 200 nautical miles from any coast. Such a huge ocean territory is difficult to patrol to be sure, but law-abiding nations usually honor one another’s declared maritime claims. So only the illegal fishing must be dealt with by DOC patrols.
Chapter 11. Enderby Island
The next port of call was an island among the Auckland Group: Enderby, comprised of 1730 acres, considerably smaller than Campbell. Enderby is also of volcanic origin but is much lower in height. Whereas Campbell has mountains and cliffs up to 1640 feet high, Enderby attains only 147 feet of altitude. Yet whatever Enderby lacked in cliff and mountain grandeur, it more than made up in panoramas because of the megaherbs. We had believed that those on Campbell could not have been topped, but they were!
And, Enderby also hosted the mysterious rata forest and its magical denizens: the yellow- eyed penguins. Other endangered species inhabit this beautiful little island as well: two types of albatross (the Gibson’s and the white-capped), the Hooker’s sea lion, southern right whales, snipes, brown teal, and a small colony of eastern rockhopper penguins and one species of parakeet, the red crowned! Parakeets so near the Antarctic? How incongruous! Our visit just had to be a marvel and it truly was! Right away however I must admit to something pretty funny in retrospect but fairly frustrating in the moment. Kay and I decided to take the long birding walk which proved to be a trek - 9 miles around the complete perimeter of the
island which took all of us 8 hours to finish. Why did it take so long to walk that distance? It certainly wasn’t the terrain that was pretty flat. Though it was overcast and chilly, it wasn’t the weather either. And we couldn’t even blame the very strong winds because they were pretty much confined to the headland areas and we were not always hiking along the coast.
No, it was the tall grasses and the tussocks made of shorter, bunchier grasses that were the problem. Since so few people visit these islands during the year that there was no real trail to speak of we were basically just bushwhacking over most of the island. Only at the end of our hike was there a boardwalk about ½ mile long.
The long leaves of the Poa grasses reached out from plant to plant creating “tangle traps” which ensnared boots and pantlegs causing much falling forward onto the knees When somehow I would escape the grasses for a few steps, then a tussock would reach out to trip me up and it was usually successful. I don’t think I have fallen so many times on a hike in my life, maybe even on a combination of all the hikes I have ever done!
The good thing about the grasses is that they created soft landings for sure because the clumps and tussocks were so springy. The problem lay in righting oneself after each fall. Sometimes I would even “turtle” and have to figure out how to get off my back and return to my feet. That was harder than just arising from a “forward” fall. Kay said my trip (no pun intended) was probably much more tiring than anyone else’s because I had to get up from being down so often!
Birds we saw along the way included 1. Southern Albatross, 2. Brown Skua, 3. Octago Shag, 4. Red-crowned Parakeet, 5. Baby Petral, and 6. a Tomtit.
Now that the rigors of the hike are behind us so to speak, it is appropriate to rhapsodize on the splendors of the island.
The rata forest is an alien-appearing growth to be sure. Slender and twisted, the trunks grow about 15 feet high in search of the sun that does not shine all that often down here in the Sub Antarctic. The foliage at the top is both thin in terms of the tiny leaves and scarce since the leafy component of the trees is not fulsome at all. The trees seem to strain to intertwine with one another more than they struggle to reach the canopy.
The forest appears impenetrable at first look because of this tangle of trunks. However, we had to pierce through the maze because the forest was to be our best hope of seeing the yellow-eyed penguins up close and with babies in their nests. These birds are one of the few non- colonial species of penguin in the world. Instead of huddling close together in huge rookeries, these penguins are solitary except at breeding season and even then the pair do not join others of their kind. Instead, they seek shallow depressions, burrows, or caves to deposit their eggs far removed the other breeding pairs.
Like other birds both sexes tend the chicks alternately. While one parent is at sea, the other sits the eggs and guards the chicks. They are also different from other penguins in that they are very quiet no sitting around braying for these birds. They sit silently or walk without speaking back and forth to the sea. Because of these traits, the yellow-eyes are much harder to find. Sight and sound do not help locate the birds. And because they are not all bunched together, there is no characteristic guano smell radiating out from their homes. So the sense of smell doesn’t help locate themeither.
Knowing their habitats and habits is the key to finding them. Even armed with this knowledge and led by birding experts, we located only one yelloweye near a nest containing two chicks. The nest was located deep in the rata forest and it was no more secure or secret than an overhanging bank of a dry watercourse. The parent bird was quite aware of our presence as we gathered together in the very “huddling behavior” the birds scorn.
Our group crouched low, some even lying on the damp earth to get eye level pictures. It was dark beneath the protecting bank and difficult to get good looks, much less photos, of the chicks. The parent bird was much easier to watch since it stood around for quite a long time. Finally it must have decided that we were not a threat to the chicks and it wandered off toward the sea or maybe it was trying the old “decoy” trick of leading us away from the chicks. The twins were all covered in plushy gray down and did not really venture out of their hideaway at all.
This penguin is the 3 largest of the penguins, after the Emperor and the King, and it stands 30 inches tall and weighs about 14 lbs.
The Yellow-eyed Penguin is considered the rarest penguin in the world and therefore is a species of great concern to DOC, especially since he is one of the New Zealand endemic birds. He has been adopted as the mascot for the penguin conservation programs for all New Zealand and is also the official bird for the town of Dunedin. A mysterious disease killed 60% of the chicks during 2004 and the pathogen has yet to be identified. This disease did not affect the penguins of Enderby Island directly but of course it led to the overall declineof the species. Researchers are continuing their work to determine the cause of the disease.
Besides seeking ways to prevent the recurrence of this disease, DOC concentrates its efforts at protecting this species through eradication of predators from its breeding and nesting grounds. Enderby Island is another of the places that DOC has proclaimed predator free at present. However, in other areas which the yellow-eye inhabits on the mainland, this project has no chance of success since the reserves cannot be maintained predator
free so the effort is aimed at controlling predation. At present there are approximately 4000-5000 breeding pairs accounted for by DOC.
The other wildlife treat on Enderby, at the end of our tiring walk, was the “gamming” performed for us by 5 Gibson’s albatross. So what is “gamming” all about? It is a behavior engaged in mostly by young albatross who are learning to identify potential mates and to create lasting pair bonds. The adult albatross who are just beginning to return from their 5-7 years at sea since fledging swoop about and eye one another. Then two or more may land and examine each other more closely through patterned and imitative dancing, sky pointing, calling in their braying voices, soft bill kisses and bill clicking, and then preening one another.
Usually the birds in a “gam” will not be mature enough to breed but they are practicing the skills they will need when they return in the following year with serious business on their minds. The elaborate courtship dances will evolve into the behavior that allows the pair bonds to recognize each other every other year when they return to mate and raise a chick once again.
Our chance to watch the “gamming” involved 5 birds at first, but then one of them decided that “five is a crowd” so he left the other four to their socializing. There was much spreading of wings presumably to demonstrate size, dancing in circles to show stamina and strength perhaps, crisscrossing of bills with one another creating a clicking sound, and pointing their long bills straight up into the sky.
The birds are so brilliantly white and impressive in size against the beautiful background of the megaherbs covering the rolling ground around them. The activity was awe-inspiring and curiously uplifting.
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to describe the megaherbs. On this island the major plants were the yellow bulbinella and the pink-tinged unbellifers, as well as three types of endemic daisies with colors ranging from pale yellow to white and even mauve. Tiny pipits perched on the flower spires singing and calling out their territories using these tallest “structures” in the landscape. The landscape was covered with these beautiful flowers so that whole island resembled Joseph’s coat of many colors spread out for the albatross to tread upon. The grasses and tussocks in the tundra areas were also beautiful (except when they were catching at my boots) in their many shades of green with silvery gray undersides on the shafts.
There are 233 different plants on Enderby Island: 84% are indigenous. At least 5 plants live only on the Auckland Island group: two gentians, a buttercup, a fruitless plantain, and the bellicose grass Poa aucklandia. Another interesting plant is the tree daisy that grows in the rata forest edges.
The flower of this tree resembles a daisy very closely, hence its name. The world’s southernmost tree fern also lives on this wonderful island. In places where the tree ferns gather, the island almost looks tropical,
Then add another surprising indigenous creature and the tropical designation doesn’t seem so far fetched: the red-crowned parakeet! What on earth is this bird doing in such an inhospitable and decidedly “unwarm” environment? He is about the same size as our familiar cage bird and boasts about the same color green feathers as ours. He has a crown of red feathers on his head which makes him stand out even among the colorful megaherbs and tall grasses where he flits and darts about. By the time we reached his part of Enderby, it was gray, misty and overcast and looked pretty chilly to us. This little fellow was totally unfazed and continued his usual activities. He and his fellows are so hardy that they are not considered endangered by DOC so no special measures are needed for his survival.
A long stretch of the walk was along the windswept shoreline. Bird life and sea lion sightings filled the gaps between inland struggles through the tall vegetation.
Back to the ship and on to the next island.
Chapter 12. Snare's Island
This island is north of Enderby, so you can tell that we are sailing back closer and closer to the New Zealand mainland islands. DOC has a big responsibility in this island group because it is the only forested one of the Sub Antarctic islands that has never been invaded by any alien species of mammals, not even mice! Though DOC cannot claim that its efforts created this Edenic environment, it must work to keep the island pristine. Thus, visitors are no longer allowed to land on this bit of granite. Only researchers and scientists can walk its territory.
We visited it anyway by Zodiacs. Of course, we never got off them, but these useful craft could get us close to the land where we could observe the antics of the comical Snare’s Island Crested Penguins. There were many rocky and slick slides barren of plants that the penguins use to go from sea to their nests up on the island. These slippery spots seemed impossible for the little awkward birds to climb, but climb them they did and really quite niftily too.
This penguin is fairly small reaching 25 to 28 inches in height and weighing from 5 to 8 lbs. The males are slightly larger than the females and their robust red bills are heavier than those of the females.
Both sexes sport the characteristic sulphur- yellow feathers starting over the eyes like a brow and culminating in a droopy, bushy crest. They are blue black on their upperparts and white on the underparts. They are quite comical in these formal feathers as they waddle about really just like all the other penguins.
It is interesting to learn that all the crested penguin species populations in the world are faring much better than the other types. Their numbers are large and stable. They regularly breed, nest and fledge their chicks successfully. At this point, the ornithologists who study penguins have no generally acceptable explanation for this phenomenon. The cresteds live in most of the same places that other penguins occupy so it would seem that food supply wouldn’t explain it, nor would predation, or habitat loss. The crested penguins all breed in the Sub Antarctic islands and a few other isolated spots. Some Rockhoppers breed on the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Fiordland breeds on the extreme south of the South Island as well as on some nearby islands.
All these breeds are colonial and fiercely territorial. They mate for life and always return to their own “hatching” place. They are all characterized by the flashy yellow or orange crests on the sides of their heads. Some of these jaunty feathers are erect, some droopy, others swept back from the eyes, but all are pronounced and amusing. Their bills are also red or orange and their eyes are red or red-brown.
These birds spend half of the year at sea and the other half tending their reproductive responsibilities on land and then about month later coming back for the annual molt they must undergo along with all species of penguins. They are long-lived and usually do not begin to breed until their 5 year of life.
Two eggs are laid but usually only the second ever hatches. If the first does happen to hatch, it usually dies within a week of that event. Both sexes feed the chick but rather oddly in that they do not feed one another even though
each sits for long periods with the eggs and the newly hatched checks without food for itself. After about 4-5 weeks of being fed at the nest, all the chicks in the colony come together to form a crèche (nursery) where they live about 2-3 weeks being fed by their own parents only.
In size, the cresteds range from the Macaronis who are the largest at 28” and 10-15 lbs. down to the Rockhoppers who are only 20 inches and weighno more than 5-6 lbs.
Snares and Fjordlands are 22” high and weigh 5-6 lbs. We did not see the Royal (28” but only 9-11 lbs) or the Erect Crested (26” and 8-10 lbs.) since we did not visit the islands on which they nest. Regardless of size or breed, penguins are raucous and smelly birds. They bray variously but always loudly. Their rookeries are detectable far away from the colonies because of the intense odor of their guano. Perhaps an exclusive diet of seafood will produce that problem?
Our Zodiac explorations started off in very bumpy seas that made boarding the little rubber boats quite a challenge. The wonderful able-bodied seaman made it all happen without incident. There was rain in our faces and overcast skies. We all knew better than to complain since we had already been told that our weather in this area has been extraordinarily good.
Some years the seaside explorations to Snare’s Island are made impossible by the rough and tumble seas! So we happily scrambled aboard the Zodiacs and looked eagerly through the raindrops at the scenes passing by us.
Our Snare’s Island circumnavigations were made so entertaining by the funny antics of the penguins we saw there and we were able to get so close to them that we could have touched them had that been permitted.
Of course, we were also warned that they are aggressive and could easily snap off a fingertip. So no one tried that trick. We also enjoyed the beauty of the island with its dense forests of daisy trees in partial bloom where tiny little warbler-sized birds were flitting and hopping. We saw the tiny black
and white tomtits, the lovely white and elegant Antarctic terns, the interesting fern birds, sooty shearwaters, and the strikingly marked redbilled gulls with their bright white feathers so sharply contrasted with their bright red bills and red feet
The Zodiacs maneuvered us deftly into little inlets where we could approach the penguins. The penguins on this island have such an awesome journey to undertake at least twice daily. The cliff faces they traverse are incredibly steep and they must get completely up that declivity into the daisy tree forest where they have their nests among the tree roots. It is fascinating to note that though these nest burrow excavations can cause damage to the daisy trees, the penguins are good stewards of their nest sites because they move around from year to year on the island, allowing the trees to recover.
We went through arches & tunnels of granite carved by the incessant action of the tides. We were alternately wet and dry depending on the vagaries of the weather. These lonely islands in the windswept Southern Ocean are quite spectacular. Their high basaltic cliff faces and the sea stacks around their peripheries are cold and glowering. The abundant plant life, both terrestrial and marine, softens the harshness and the wonderful animals who call these places home prove that the islands are not hostile to life.
All this activity occurred during our morning Zodiac exploration. In the afternoon, we had another look at the island’s treasures! The squally rains kept spattering us intermittently and the sea had gotten a bit rougher at first, but thenafter a really slow transition, the sunburst out of the heavy clouds and blue sky won the field. While our clothes steamed in the drying sunlight, we continued to look in amazement and awe at beautiful Snare’s Island. How wonderful it is that DOC has been able to keep this island pristine and entirely inhabited by only native wildlife and plants!
The finale to our visit “to” but not “on” this special island was as exciting and moving as the day of coastal explorations had proved to be. Every night while they are on Snare’s Island for breeding, the sooty shearwaters settle on the ocean surface about a mile from shore. We could watch them as they flew in and joined the ever- increasing throng of rafting birds. The birds were so numerous that they created highly visible black lines on the horizon! When something spooked them and they all lifted off into the sky, the black cloud they created was so dense we could not see blue
sky beyond them. It seemed like we were seeing the mass exodus of millions of bats from Carlsbad Caverns every evening or like seeing the “great migration” of wildebeest and zebra on the Serengeti Plain.
The participating animals are uncountable! We motored out beyond where the Clipper Odyssey was anchored in order to be among the birds and it was a magnificent and awe- inspiring experience. The mundane explanation for this extraordinary show is self-defense.
When flying back to shore in such huge numbers, the individual birds are protected from predatory birds like skua and giant petrel. The mass of birds also makes it more difficult for a predator to follow an individual back to its nest thus exposing eggs or chicks. Whatever the logical explanation, the encounter for us could not have been more thrilling.
Whata perfectendingto our visit to Snare’s Island!
Chapter 13. Stewart Island
This island is the third largest of New Zealand, after the North and South Islands. It is home to about 400 hardy people year around but is a vacation destination for many mainlanders. After all, 80% of the island’s 674 square miles is set aside as Rakiura National Park. The highest point on the island is Mount Anglem at 3210 ft. So the hiking opportunities here are wonderfully varied and can be as rugged as bushwhacking up mountainsides and as gentle as following the beaches on the coast.
Fishing is the main industry on the island and the populace is as independent as fisher folk usually are. The island generates its own electricity via a diesel generator. Not only do they generate their own electricity, they take care of their own sewage through a local treatment plant. Recycling plastics, glass, and paper is another enterprise the Stewart Islanders handle on their own. The island is serviced by regular flights from Invercargill and Bluff on the South Island and there is regular ferry service between Bluff and Oban, the capital city of Stewart Island.
Remember from the Maori story about the creation of New Zealand that Stewart Island is the anchor stone for Maui’s canoe (South Island) from which he and his brothers fetched up their “great fish” (North Island)? There is an interesting phenomenon present on Stewart that results from an anomaly in the magnetic latitude contours that allows frequent observation from this northern position (relative to the Antarctica) of the Aurora Australis! Of course, we were not on Stewart at the right time of year for that treat. But we still did not find our Stewart Island visit to be a “drag.”
We learnedonour bus tour of the capital city and its environs quite a bit about this remote island. Maori have lived on the island for many more years than the Europeans who only arrived in the 1850s.
One enterprising former fisherman, tired of his profession, came up with the unique idea of collecting the rainwater from the roof of the new community center and selling it on the mainland as a healthy bottled drink.
Apparently, the lure of Stewart Island rainwater has made his business thrive. There are a couple of stores in Oban, a motel or two, a couple of restaurants, and the regional headquarters of the redoubtable DOC. Property values in the town have risen due to the demand by mainlanders who want to own their vacation spots. Some really lovely houses with spectacular views of the many beaches were on our bus tour agenda. There are lovely beaches around the island that certainly look more tropical than Sub Antarctic. Obanis a pretty little town indeed.
A visit to the Fuchsia Walk was strongly suggested to us and we were happy to comply. The walk, right in the middle of the town, has been created by the town folk with the assistance of DOC to show off the birdlife that continues to live in town along with the human inhabitants. Most enjoyable on the shaded and gravel walkway was watching the kakas (an endemic New Zealand parrot) displaying and performing courtship dances. They are quite beautiful when they open their olive wings and reveal the vibrant orange feathers underneath. They were screeching and bouncing from limb to limb with lively animation as they furled and unfurled those flamboyant wings. We also saw the oddly mismatched NZ wood pigeon with its comically round
body with its ridiculous tiny head. The harsh squawks of the kakas did not drown out the melodious songs of the bellbirds, but created an avant garde counterpoint. Though the walk was only about 1 magical mile,it was just a total delight.
Chapter 14. Ulva Island
It may be that the visit to this tiny island just off from Stewart Island was the highpoint in our visit since it combined everything we had learned about the conservation efforts afoot today in New Zealand. This is a private undertaking by citizens of Stewart Island, operated in conjunction with DOC guidelines and supervision. About 11 years ago, the good people of Oban and environs decided to make their own predator-free nature reserve. Through consultations with DOC, they employed the same pest eradication techniques utilized by DOC. Within a year of their initial efforts, they were able to declare Ulva Island exotic predator free! Such a proud accomplishment for
these dedicated private citizens! Next they were able to work with DOC to bring some birds that had been present on Ulva before human/exotic animal predation over to this island for their sanctuary. This re-introduction has been a clear success, as we were to see during our visit.
We rode the Zodiacs over from the Clipper O to the island over the bumpiest seas we had crossed yet on this expedition but we were are psyched for this
visit because we had heard so much about the island. Everyone was smiling in eager anticipation and no one gave way to anxiety or white knuckling—at least not in our Zodiac. We even failed to mention or respond to the now-familiar drenching rain.
And what magic awaited us there! First treat of all was our enthusiastic and almost proprietary guide whose name was the same as the island Ulva. She told us with no less pride that she was part Maori, part Scotch and even had some USA heritage in her past! She is also so proud of what she and the other participants have been able to achieve on Ulva Island. No wonder she feels such a sense of happy ownership—with its combination of protectiveness and a wish to share the beauties of the place.
She reported to us that the constant vigilance practiced by the docents and scientists has kept the island completely pest free. The native birds are rebounding and thriving. She took such delight in every birdsong she heard and interpreted its species for us. And the native birds are not the only living things that are flourishing on Ulva the orchids, the mosses, ferns, totaro trees (a stout and tall tree almost lost to European ship-building practices in many parts of New Zealand), ratas (seen in much greater profusion by us on
Enderby), rimu trees with their flamboyant red blossoms, lancewood (described at Jacob’s Bay), and miro trees with their amazingly patterned bark. Ulva reveled in pointed out every smallest little flower and every enormous tree as if they were her own, as indeed they were in a certain sense.
Amongthe bird species we saw happily making their homes in this haven were weka (rather like a chicken but we don’t know if it also tastes like one), kaka (the gaudy parrot), saddlebacks (at one time reduced to only 30 birds in all New Zealand and here in Ulva alone they have 30 pairs breeding), fantails (another tiny bird almost lost to NZ—it has the most amazing tail feathers which spread like a lady’s fan with stripes of white and black), brown creepers (they are like our sapsuckers and can up & down tree trunks backwards and forwards), tui (
a lovely black bird with vivacious yellow feathers about its face itself almost extinct on the two mainland islands), and finally the fabled rifleman (NZ’s tiniest bird, so small that its nest cavity is just a narrow slit in a tree truck and whose chicks are no larger than bumblebees).
We didn’t see the babies of the pair of rifleman we were lucky enough to observe, but we did see the daredevil approach of the parent birds to the almost invisible slit in the tree where they folded their wings without a pause and disappeared inside! Quite a show! During our hour and a half visit to this special place, we had alternate rain and sunshine, but we delighted in it all. The thoughtful conservators of Ulva Island have put down gravel paths so there is no slippery mud to contend with and they have bridged all the little streamlets with non-slip materials so there is no fording necessary. If we could have had longer on the island, there were several more trails we could have ambled, but time constraints and the need to share with our fellow passengers constrained us. However, we break out from the forested areas onto Boulder Beach and Sydney Cove where we spotted fairy (blue) penguin footprints and saw a weka pair with their fluffy gray chick. Since the parents are a brown color, we surmised that somewhere along life’s way, the little weka chick will become that same hue. And because Ulva is such a protected habitat, there is no reason to fear that he or she will not grow up and help continue the rise of the weka population here!
We were all a little regretful as we left Stewart Island to sail for Dusky Sound and Milford Sound on the Southwest coast of the South Island. But we should have anticipatedthat there would be some treats in store for us theretoo. What we did not bargain for was the gushing downpours of rain and heavy clouds that would change the views of these two famous sounds.
Chapter 15. Dusky Sound
We entered the long fjord which creates Dusky Sound in early morning and the rain was already misting down from the low-hanging clouds. The tops of the walls forming the fjord were enveloped in the white and gray shawls of cloud, but the beauty was not obscured. The high mountain walls were slick and black and the whole view became a striking black and white scene with the clouds, the dark waters, the grey-white sky, and jet-black granite surrounding the whole scene. The ship cruised slowly through the narrow passage and we all were struck by the quiet beauty around us. As we tooledaround the Sound, some of the passengers were lucky enough to see NZ fur seals and crested fjordland penguins on the shorelineand in the water. These animals are under the protection of DOC too. However, Kay and I were not on a Zodiac where these creatures were spotted.
Yes, Lois. Bugs as well as Rain!
We were so thoroughly and heavily rained on that we saw a virtual white- out between the rain and the clouds. Just as we had accepted this limited palette in the scene, we were told to get ready for an unexpected disembarkation!
Astronomer Point
Now the world became infused with wet and shiny greens. We were landing on shore among huge trees and low bushes, all of them drip, drip, dripping. This is another DOC site associated with Capt. Cook. During the first of his voyages to the South Seas, he was interested in the Transit of Venus and had been sent to observe it from Tahiti. Observations were also being made at the time at other points on the globe. A Transit of Venus occurs when the planet Venus passes between Earth and the Sun, obscuring a small portion of the solar disk. A transit usually lasts around 6 hours or so and before the space age these observations were very important in aiding scientists in determining
the distance between Earth and the Sun exactly. Transits are among the rarest of predictable astronomical events, occurring approximately every 243 years. Capt. Cook was aboard the Resolute during this voyage and he stopped in Dusky Sound to make astronomical observations connected with the Transit of Venus responsibility. He found good anchorage here with fresh water, greens, and timber for ship’s repairs.
From his ship logs, modern historians and scientists know that this is very spot he stopped and took his measurements during June 1769. DOC has built a walkway and ramp up to this point so that modern visitors can see what Capt. Cook saw. For the non-astronomer, the value of the site is realizing that you are standing where Capt. Cook and his men stood in 1769. It is even postulated that some of the downed tree trunks are remnants of those his crew cut to make ship repairs. There is of course historic significance in this site, but on the day we were there no sightings could have been made and the walkway was so slippery that we were pretty much underwhelmed.
Chapter 16. Milford Sound
Our last adventure on the Clipper Odyssey was a sailing up Milford Sound, the most famous of NZ’s beautiful fjords. This magnificent trip includes a look at the iconic Mitre Peak. The rains were still falling heavily as we made our way upthe sea fingertowardsthe unwanted “jumping off place.” Theupside ofthe constantly falling rain was the miracle of a 1000 or more splashing and crashing waterfalls everywhere along the fjord.
Some slender little ribbons, others more like broad bolts of silvery silk being unfurled down from the mountain tops, and still others like waters gushing over a broken dam, so broad and rushing were their cascades. It was a magnificent view thanks to the rain.
The scene of Mitre Peak was not exactly as advertised in tourist brochures where it is always shown under brilliant blue skies and bright sunshine. No, today Mitre looked a bit hoary with all the clouds swirling around his head and all the rain blocking our clear view.
However, the whole panorama was so dramatic that no one could have wished the rains away. We knew our lovely expedition on board the Clipper O ended as we sighted Mitre Peak and were offloaded onto a smaller boat that carried us to the commercial harbor. Milford Sound, as well as Dusky Sound, are part of the wonderful Fjordland National Park and thus under the jurisdiction of “dear old DOC.”
There is a hotel (many years old) at the docking area and the terminal building has been completely rebuilt since we were here last in 1987. No other commercial concerns have been allowed to develop in the Park, thanks to do the good “DOC.” I didn’t mention it before but there is an electrical power plant in Dusky Sound but it predates DOC’s jurisdiction as well. Otherwise, the huge Park with all its marvelous fjords is not diminished by human intrusions.
Homer Tunnel
This fabled tunnel has eased the way for travelers between Te Anau and Queenstown beyond that and Milford Sound. It is an estimable engineering feat and has certainly opened up this part of Fjordland National Park since its opening in 1954. The tunnel was started in the 30s during the Depression when workers were put to the job of blasting through the solid granite of Homer Saddle, a pass through the Main Divide Mountains. Doesn’t this remind you of our CCC workers during the US Depression?
There were many problems with the construction of the Tunnel, the most debilitating ones having to do with rock fractures and snow avalanches. Work on the Tunnel was halted during World War II and then it was finally completed and opened in 1954. At the time and for many years after, it was the longest bare granite and gravel- surfaced tunnel in the world. It is just short of a mile long and traffic is controlled by stoplights at either end since the passage is only 1-½ lanes wide. A bus & a car can pass side by side, but two buses cause great consternation and difficulty.
It is pretty sure that Homer Tunnel is NOT under the direct control of DOC even though it is in the National Park; the Department of Roads, Bridges and Tunnels is the caretaker for the tunnel. I only mention the wonderful tunnel because it was at the entrance to its opening we had our last wildlife sighting where the creatures do “belong” to DOC.
The best sighting here was a group of the cheeky, curious, constantly chewing, comical clown of the NZ avian world the endemic alpine parrot, the Kea. We had encountered these mischievous and ubiquitous imps when we had done the Milford Track back in 1987. They would light upon your backpacks picking at straps and zipper pulls with their stout beaks. They would divebomb our picnic site, swooping in to snatch our sandwich right from our hand, they stole anything we had sitting out on the table if they could lift it and they are prodigiously strong.
But all the while we never become angry because they were so funny and cute! Well, here at Homer Tunnel, we met them again and in 22 years their nature has certainly not changed a bit. They were pecking the rubber on windshield wipers of cars around them. They were cadging snacks from all of us standing around our van. They would stoop to outright thievery if nothing
was offered. They would swoop right across the tops of our heads, checking for loose caps to steal. They squawked and bickered like all parrots do. But we were just as amused by their antics as we were years before.
The Kea is one of the world’s only alpine parrots and he lives in the high mountains even during heavy winter snows. He has a very strong, downcurved and sharp beak which he uses most intelligently. He can open garbage cans, bird feeders, animals traps, and has a quite logical approach to stubborn obstacles.
I saw one move logs placed atop garbage cans so that he could get at the contents. I saw another remove a large piece of wood used as a lock on a bin to retrieve the food inside. They will use tools to attain their ends as well.
In appearance, the kea is not brightly colored, more like an olive-gray shade all over the body except at the base of the tail where there is bright orange and on the underside of the wings which is also bright orange to red. The feathers are rather owl-like in their layering pattern.
The kea is a large parrot measuring 17- 19 inches from beak to tail. After the Europeans came, the Kea was seen as a destructive pest who would even attack sheep. Farmers were allowed to shoot them on sight and at one time
there was a bounty put on them. When their population plunged from 200,000 counted down to 5,000, the government put them under partial protection and removed the bounty.
Finally, when their population failed to rebound appropriately, they were listed as endangered birds and have been completely protected since 1986. Their numbers are finally rebounding, albeit not rapidly. A side , which shows again the support of the New Zealanders for conservation, involves the placement of the kea in specially protected status.
Before the regulation was even approved, a large majority of New Zealander farmers and sheepherders voted to voluntarily abstain from killing keas that troubled their property. Instead, DOC and the farmers groups agreed to work with each other to remove bothersome birds from their farms and sheep stations.
Now the farmer who has a problem kea calls DOC and their personnel come out and trap the wily bird and relocate him to his natural habitat up in the high mountain areas.
Isn’t this an encouraging story about the Kiwi attitude towards preserving their native species? Seeing this merry bird jumping on cars, trucks, people’s boots, their heads, grabbing things out of human hands, and generally making a clown and even a pest of himself was a wonderful way to say goodbye to New Zealand because we know that even this often pesky creature is protected by the New Zealanders themselves who stand behind the wonderful work DOC does to save and protect the native animal, birds and plants here.
Chapter 17. Conclusions
Our visit to the Sub Antarctic Islands of New Zealand was an enjoyable success in every way. The scenery was unspoiled and wildly beautiful. The animals were charming even if not particularly handsome such as the dragon tuatara reptile. The birds were so different because of their isolated evolution. The plants were strange to us but very lush and lovely. The Clipper Odyssey was a comfortable and maneuverable ship with a friendly and helpful staff and Zegrahm Expeditions provided the most expert guides in the world anywhere they take their customers. We had renowned ornithologists, geologists, marine biologists, geographers and geologists, historians, botanists, and evolutionary biologists all eager to make our trip to this special part of the world more meaningful to us.
And a really special facet of the trip was learning about the terrific and effective conservation programs run by The New Zealand Department of Conservation with huge majority support of the Kiwis themselves both those of European background and the native Maoris!
In this remote part of the world where evolution has produced such singular beings and plants, it also seems to have allowed Homo sapiens New Zealandiensis to become a true human being concerned with the natural world as well as himself! What a privilege to be among them for a while.
Good Job, DOC!
