March 4 Auckland Islands

It was a narrow boardwalk as were they all. Had to make sure I kept my gumboots under control. Tricky!

I really like lichen. No jokes please!

Idyllic glen

These little parsley-looking lovelies belong to a species I think called Hymenophyton flabellatum - a liverwort it seems.

I include this pic to show you my measuring stick. Its origins as you may have guessed from the letters are the forensic med institute (goes back to my lab days!) but I stuck this wee thing on a paddle pop stick. I got some interesting comments!

Flax

A prickly shield fern - Polystichum vestitum (if I read my scribble correctly)  They are stiff as the name suggests and rather grand.

A weeping matipo - Myrsine divaricata. Maybe something a little ordinary to some but just look at those leaves. Dear little hearts!

A reasonable nights sleep and we woke to calm waters - double halleluja!! we had arrived at the Auckland Islands and were going ashore.  I made a very ungraceful landing onto rocks and slippery kelp (I wasn't the only one but ....). I love kelp but NOT to walk on but we were handed ashore and set off on a narrow boardwalk to a graveyard, the remains from an early attempt to settle the island. Then we backtracked to walk to a special marked tree. The best part for me was the forest of gnarled Rata trees. The growing tips and the flowers of these trees are red so at certain times of year, the canopy is ablaze.  I was more interested in the plants than the history so I let the others go ahead while I just dallied among the moss, trees and ferns - so peaceful!
I found quite a lot of interesting plants, lichen and tiny fungi, I was happy and spent the rest of the morning trying to identify them from very meagre resource material. Lindsay picked me up on his way back to the zodiac.

We landed on a sandy beach in Sandy Bay! Enderby Island. Wind swept and glorious desolation - except for the seals, sealions, penguins and other birds.

The dunes were the domain of the seals, sea lions and penguins and off limits to us.

Peaty turf stretching away in front and behind us.

A liverwort perhaps? any ideas?

The secretive and rare Yellow-eye penguins. You can see how it got its name. A delicate pink daubed beak tip looked like lipstick.

A sweet wee Auckland Island Tomtit

Our landing party. I couldn't believe that some people just tromped right through this large plant - Urtica Astralia, a large leafed nettle.

Plantago triantha These grow in sand and were dotted over the dunes. I love their symmetry

Interesting layers - sand, pebbly peat, peat, moss and grass.

Tranquility plus! Lindsay saw a flightless teal in this pond. It's rare and endemic to Enderby Island

Pretty wee plant - yet to be identified but lovely regardless of name.



This watery spot prompts me to tell you that across the hinterland we were walking on very deep peat that moved up and down like a water bed as we walked on it.  Weird experience.

After rambling over the dunes for a few hours it seemed, we cruised along the cliff edge nosing into caves and looking for wildlife. In a shelf on this cliff face, Auckland Island Shag chicks were lunch for big Skuas. Not pleasant to watch but that's life in the raw.

These are a little out of order but somehow we had to board the zodiacs from here. Slippery kelp, my favourite launching pad NOT. I got an 8 out of 10 for my technique from the lovely Rajan. Gentle lovely man from the US.

Summing up!
That afternoon was heavenly. We were dropped at Sandy Bay, Enderby Island, and let loose to wander the sand hills, peat fields etc  - alone! sheer bliss. We saw yellow-eyed penguins, known to Maori as Hoiho. This species is endemic to NZ and a couple of Subantarctic Islands.  We also saw Hooker sealions - they say that this is the only place they breed but we saw a mum and bub on Campbell Island on our way south to Antarctica. So!? The numbers of yellow-eye penguin (now only ~400 pair) and the Hooker sealion have declined so it was special to see them. This was the last place to rid itself of pests - thanks to an intense program of eradication.
Marvellous island to visit . Obviously it is heavily protected so visitors are kept to a minimum - only around 600 per year visit with permits. We felt fortunate. Next time I would walk across the island to the west side to experience the wild coast but particularly to see the plants! Dream on Heather - but why not?