Wild Edge of the Pacific aboard the Clipper Odyssey Dec 08—23, 2009
Posted by Barry Lyon
Barry Lyon
Barry Lyon's passion for the outdoors and birding has its roots in his childhood where he grew up in southern California. He attended several VENT/ABA youth birding cam...Related Trips
I have been to Antarctica twice. After each of those expeditions I returned home fully convinced that no other destination could match an Antarctic cruise for exposure to natural splendor and tremendous wildlife spectacles. Or so I thought.
The subantarctic islands of New Zealand exist as a collection of isolated archipelagos lying at the interface of the Pacific and Southern oceans. Situated between 43° and 52° south, these island clusters are remote outposts in every sense—raw, rugged, and hundreds of miles removed from the familiar comforts and natural beauty of the "mainland" islands.
Shaped and influenced by the power of two great oceans, these islands are fortresses, largely uninhabitable for mankind, but ideal places for wildlife to flourish. This region supports the world's greatest diversity of breeding seabirds along with elephant seals, fur seals, sea lions, endemic landbirds, and bizarre and beautiful botanical compositions. The life-giving waters of the Southern Ocean, where massive amounts of plankton form the foundation for one of the planet's most complex food webs, are the key to this abundance.
Our Wild Edge of the Pacific cruise was an unforgettable journey to the subantarctic islands of New Zealand. Our itinerary was an ideal one that included all the major island groups—Chatham, Bounty, Antipodes, Campbell, Auckland, Snares, and Stewart islands. Each day was a highlight reel populated by close encounters with penguins, visits to colonies of nesting albatrosses, images of the sea filled with hundreds and hundreds of seabirds, and Zodiac cruises we wished would never end.
Our two-week cruise ultimately produced 14 species of albatrosses, 7 species of penguins, and nearly two dozen other petrels, giant-petrels, diving petrels, storm-petrels, prions, and shearwaters, in addition to an impressive assortment of critically endangered landbirds.
Favorite memories included:
• The Chathams—A cruise by Pyramid Rock brought us in close proximity to the world's only nesting place for the beautiful Chatham Islands Albatross. With the ship parked offshore of the distinctive triangular rock, we watched entranced as great scores of albatrosses, in flocks of hundreds, covered the water around the ship.
• The Bounties—Vestiges of ancient Gondwanaland, and sometimes unapproachable, these bare granite islands were tame and hospitable on the day of our visit. Low mountains rising from the sea and standing stark against the bright blue sky, the Bounties serve as a stronghold for thousands of nesting Salvin's Albatrosses, the rarely seen Erect-crested Penguin, and hundreds of subantarctic fur seals. Zodiac cruising through the interior of the islands brought us to within feet of each of these dynamic creatures.
• The Antipodes—Equally isolated but bursting with wildlife, the Antipodes are the remnants of an eroded network of ancient volcanoes. Zodiac cruising along the protected leeward bays brought encounters with more Erect-crested Penguins, declining Eastern Rockhopper Penguins, a decidedly out of place Royal Penguin, and innumerable pairs of Light-mantled Albatrosses cavorting effortlessly high up against the cliff faces in acts of courtship and pair bonding. The Antipodes also featured fantastic rock formations of columnar basalt, lichen-festooned cliff faces, plunging waterfalls, and shorelines awash in kelp and sea foam.
• At sea, between islands, we typically found ourselves surrounded by blitzes of seabirds, where half a dozen species of albatross were seen readily each day. One day in particular, between the Antipodes and Campbell islands, was especially memorable when sightings of more than 70 White-headed Petrels, 50 Mottled Petrels, and 20 Soft-plumaged Petrels headlined a sensational afternoon of seabirding.
• Ulva Island—Offering a glimpse into the past, Ulva is a predator-free island-refuge where many of New Zealand's most threatened landbirds thrive amid a native forest of Miro, Rata, and Remu trees. Saddleback, Rifleman, Yellowhead, Kaka, Bellbird, and Tui were all seen with relative ease.
Perhaps of greatest importance, an overriding theme of this trip was triumph in the arena of conservation. In traveling with two officials from the Department of Conservation we learned of New Zealand's status as the world's leading authority on the removal of non-native predators from island ecosystems. Two decades of work in such places as the Antipodes, Campbell, and Enderby islands have resulted in the removal of cats, rats, pigs, goats, and cattle. Seabird colonies previously decimated, native landbirds pushed to the brink of extinction, and indigenous botanical communities shattered by overgrazing have come back to appreciable levels of biological integrity, leaving much hope for the future.
As we entered the trip's final two days, we found ourselves on the fringe of New Zealand's South Island. Amid deepwater fjords and expansive beech forests, we were back in the New Zealand of the travel brochures, the New Zealand of fantasy. Cruising up Dusky and Doubtful sounds, our eyes beheld the same sights that greeted Captain Cook, who passed through these same waters so long ago. No doubt the remarkable achievements of the great seaman filled the minds of many, and, like him, we too were explorers, men and women thirsting for adventure and possessed of an unquenchable desire to see and experience more.