Hobart to Macquarie Island
Problems with the standby generator caused us to lose a day in Hobart. We boarded Friday morning expecting to leave at 2pm but didn’t leave the dock until the following day. It was quite stuffy in the cabins until we got under way so we spent much of our time exploring the ship. It is a quaint, typically Russian vessel with outdated almost kitsch decor. In the bar, the largest of the public rooms, there are artificial sandstone arches framing Antarctic scenes and Greek columns support the ceiling. The walls are mostly timber coloured laminate and the low ceilings tend to make it is a bit darkish but not unpleasant. The cabins are basic but comfortable. The deck areas are excellent and the bridge is always open for us to see ahead. I think it is the type of boat that will endear itself to us, comfortable and homely, and we already feel a fondness for it.
Meals are served at the table rather than the buffet style of the Aurora. The waitresses are all Russian and very sweet. Identical twins called Marina and Alina usually serve us. The food is very good. Tea, coffee and biscuits are available at all times but we are unable to make toast at midnight, as was the case on the Aurora and so far no sign of scrabble or games of 500. On the positive side they are not showing continuous episodes of League of Gentlemen, which was our daily dose of TV on the Aurora. We are a much more sedate and mature lot I’m afraid. There are usually two, sometimes three talks each day of scientific or touristy nature including slide shows and documentaries. Dr Karl Kruszelnicki is one of the excellent speakers on board.
The trip from Hobart to Macquarie Island was unusually smooth and we made up some of the lost time. Dozens of albatross swirled around the boat for most of the trip and I have managed to get a couple of really nice photos with my new camera. The rest of the passengers are a good bunch and we all seem to get along well. Apparently there are at least four ANARE people on board. Peter Boyer is travelling with the Mawson Foundation Group and gave a talk on Mawson’s preparations for his trip to Antarctica. They will be leaving the ship at Commonwealth Bay to work there for the summer. I am yet to discover the identity of the other ANARE members.
Emma McEwen who is Mawson’s great-granddaughter showed some old Frank Hurley film of the Macquarie Island part of Mawson’s expedition and the building of the radio station and she will be showing more in coming days. She also plans to show some family movies as well. I have spoken to her about being our guest speaker at the 2009 MWD and she is more than happy to be our guest speaker. As 2009 is the Centenary of the location of the South Magnetic Pole, she said she would concentrate on the Nimrod trip where Mawson and TW Edgeworth David accompanied Shackleton and located the SM Pole. It should be a great night.
We arrived at Buckles Bay at the north end of the island 8.30am Tuesday morning and by 10.30am we were being escorted around the ANARE station by the Station Leader and later were treated to scones with jam and cream. I recognised the comfy green leather chairs we had at Davis. We had our passbooks stamped, and posted a couple of postcards to the family, which will probably arrive home after we do. (I saw your photo on the wall Denise!)
The Island is just as we imagined, green, moist, smelling a bit like a dairy farm and teeming with life. We were told it was the best weather they had experienced for ages so we continue to be lucky in that respect although I would be disappointed if we didn’t have some really rough stuff sometime during the voyage.
After spending some time on the beach with the penguins and elephant seals we returned to the ship for lunch. In the afternoon we moved further south to Sandy Bay and spent an hour or two watching and photographing the seals and penguins. There are two rookeries, one at each end of the beach. King penguins are at one end and Royal penguins at the other end. They are completely at ease with us and come up to see what we were doing. I have taken some excellent close up photos. The elephant seals were also curious and a couple of people were “sat upon” by young seals who thought they had found their mothers. The King penguins are really beautiful with golden colouring around the head and their beaks change from pink to blue from one end to the other. The Royals have yellow dangling feathers on their heads and are shyer than the Kings.
Wednesday 17th December 2008
We spent the night off shore and this morning moved south to Lusitana Bay to a huge rookery of Kings (the estimate is about a quarter of a million birds), we cruised along the shoreline in zodiacs and enjoyed the scenery for about an hour. The Giant Kelp is amazing and swirls above the water at low tide like a writhing mass of snakes. The whole scene is just like the island in Jurassic Park, quite eerie with its mist-capped steep green-coloured cliffs and rocky outcrops along the waters edge.
Macquarie is the only place on Earth where oceanic bedrock is visible above the surface of the oceans. The Island lies along a mid-ocean ridge and the entire island is oceanic in nature. Magma has oozed from the spreading ridge in the form of pillow lava that can be seen as rocky stacks along the beach that look like black piles of marshmallows that have melted together. About 10 million years ago the ridge stopped spreading and areas on either side started to squeeze together forcing the oceanic crust upwards. Uplift at a rate of 1mm per year has exposed this basaltic, basic rock to the surface and apparently there is some evidence of ocean bottom sediments on the upper plateau. Great Geology!
It is now Wednesday afternoon and we are on our way to Commonwealth Bay. We should see the first iceberg in the next day or two.
We have heard no news of home so I assume nothing major has happened in the world, I guess there will be the usual Government stuff-ups and mismanagement in NSW and murders and mayhem all over. It is lovely to be ignorant of all that bad news.
I am now off to afternoon tea, which comes just after lunch and just before dinner!
The Antarctic Continent
Merry Christmas to you all,
It is now the 30th so a bit late with Christmas Greetings but things happen at super speed here. I hope everyone had a pleasant Christmas Day.
So where to begin? After leaving Macquarie Island we continued to have mild weather and gentle seas so we made good time and arrived at Commonwealth Bay on 20th Dec with the plan to unload the Mawson’s Huts people and all their gear. Strong winds (true to the nature of the place) prevented us landing so we travelled west towards Dumont D’Urville. The weather was not suitable for either helicopter or Zodiac but it was spectacular grinding our way through the pancake and sea ice and alongside icebergs large and small.
21st Dec found us still cruising about waiting for the wind to calm. Passed close to the Mertz Glacier and also close to the deserted French base at St Martin. It was -7 degrees C outside and ice covered the deck and hung as icicles from railings so we had to view the scenery from the bridge.
22nd Dec and we were back at Commonwealth Bay and by 7.30pm the wind had dropped sufficiently for helicopters to begin unloading the Mawson’s Huts Foundation gear while we were all ferried across by Zodiac into Boat Harbour where we spent the next 5 hours walking around the area, observing Adelie’s as they observed us and waiting our turn to go inside Mawson’s Hut. Amazing! Everything is just as the men left it almost 100 years ago. There were tins and bottles of food, Keens Mustard and flour, photographic chemicals and magazines and books. A broken record, clothing hanging on pegs and all draped in beautiful ice crystals so that the whole room sparkled. Mawson had a private area and his chair and desk were just as he had left them, once again completely draped in ice. Outside it was very cold with just a taste of Catabatic winds and the sun a pale smear behind grey clouds. We sat on some rocks outside the hut and rang home on our Iridium phone. How amazing to speak to the family from such an isolated place! We finally returned to the ship about 12.30pm as the sun was beginning to drop below the plateau only to reappear a few hours later.
23rd Dec found us still in Commonwealth Bay with the opportunity to return to Cape Denison again. This time it was warmer, no wind and gently snowing – just beautiful! Fewer people this time and we were able to spend longer in the hut. The helicopters had finished unloading so it was also quiet and very peaceful. Left in the afternoon for Dumont D’Urville.
24th Dec A lovely day, sunny and calm. In the morning we flew over the Base and up onto the plateau for a short distance above a road the French have built to take supplies to an inland base 1100km away. On the way back we flew over the Astrolabe Glacier and landed on an iceberg! From the air we could clearly see the abandoned runway built some years ago by the French. You may remember the fuss made by Greenpeace and other groups when the French blasted three islands all with rookeries, to join them together and make a runway. They also have built a large hanger and tower but the runway has never been used. I think there was a storm, which damaged part of the runway, or maybe it was due to Greenpeace but either way it is now just a rocky ridge and the penguins have not returned.
In the afternoon the Zodiacs took us around the icebergs with their beautiful ice sculptures, blue caves and stalactite veils across the front of shallow caves. Animals were everywhere, lots of Adelie penguins diving through the water and leaping out onto ice platforms and we were lucky to see some baby emperor penguins sitting on the edge of the ice with their beige fluffy coats beginning to fall off. A really lovely day!
25th Dec. Christmas Day found us wedged into the sea ice so that we could “walk on water”. A helipad was marked out on the ice using soy sauce, red jelly crystals and paprika, which will spice up the ice biota’s diet somewhat. There are two helicopters on board, “The White Knight” a Squirrel and “The Green Dragon” a Jet Ranger. Following our scenic flight over the sea ice and the edge of the plateau we enjoyed a traditional Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings and rested in the afternoon. How nice to have a sleep after Christmas Dinner and not feel guilty about the washing-up! At 10.30pm we were offered the chance of another Zodiac ride. Luckily we declined as the wind came up while they were away and they had great difficulty getting people back on board. All were drenched with a couple of incidents where the swell on the landing platform came up to people’s waists before they could climb the stairs.
26th Dec. Tour of the French Base. We found ourselves closely guarded in small groups and were given a rather perfunctory tour of the base. It is smaller than Davis and not as well equipped (as far as I could tell) but situated in a spectacular setting. The base is on the highest point of a small island with wonderful views of icebergs and glaciers with the polar cap in the background. To get to the base there are steel walkways elevated above and through an Adele Rookery. The penguins and their tiny grey babies were not at all concerned as we walked by. There were also Snow Petrels nesting in the rocks about a metre from the walkway and in the distance we could see the Emperor Rookery with thousands of brown furry babies standing about. Later as we waited to be taken back to the ship we watched as Adelies leapt out of the water onto the ice right at our feet and close by baby Emperors played with each other as they climbed up and down an ice ridge. Very sweet!
27th Dec. finds us east of Dumont D’Urville enjoying a beautiful sparkling day. We flew up the plateau to Madigan’s Nunatak today and walked around the 2700 ft mountaintop for a short time. A Nunatak is described by Mawson as “an island-like outcrop of rock, projecting through a sheet of enveloping land-ice”. This peak is named after one of Mawson’s men and we discovered some items there that are of significant archaeological interest. Estelle Lazer, archaeologist extraordinaire and one of the tour speakers, was over the moon as she investigated the food cache described as a tin can with folded seams with lead solder containing three calico bags, two partially opened. One contained flour and the other filled with a brown substance, which may have been pemmican. We are the first to record the presence of this food depot left by Mawson’s team in the 1911-1914 expedition.
28th Dec our last day in the ice turned out to be a perfect day, sunshine and sparkling ice. Continuous helicopter flights took us to the top of the Mertz Glacier where we were left to walk about for as long as we liked. This was an indescribably beautiful experience. The snow was crisp and dry underfoot and glistening in the bright sunshine. The view was of a windswept expanse of snow with a jumble of fractured blocks of ice along the edge of the glacier. On the way back we flew over the edge, through canyons of ice and onto an iceberg. In the afternoon yet another Zodiac trip meandering through a maze of multi-year icefloes, following the steep jagged cliff line of the glacier. Up close and personal with several Crab-eater seals and their babies and just missed out seeing a whale that emerged behind us then quickly submerged again out of sight. We began the trip back in the evening and Ron and I stood on the stern and said goodbye as the coastline disappeared from view.
29-30th Dec finds us at sea in a Force 8 gale, heavy cloud and 5 metre white caps. Most people are on their bunks as it is the safest place to be and I will be doing the same once I have sent this email.
New Years Eve and the sea still rough, it is becoming tedious, and I said I wanted some rough weather! We had a lovely meal tonight followed by a party with entertainment and dancing. The dancing was a scream, with the floor dancing to its own tune it was impossible not to “mix” with the other dancers on the floor as you found yourself running for the nearest column.
Auckland Islands to Hobart
We are now on the last leg of the journey. On Saturday 3rd January we spent the day exploring the Auckland Islands landing in a couple of spots and walking through Rata forest. Rata is sometimes called New Zealand Christmas Bush and although it was not in full bloom it was beginning to redden. The final effect must be spectacular as the whole island would be bright crimson. We saw sea lions on a beach with the females and their babies surrounded by huge ugly males fighting off attempts by other males to steal from their harems. Also on the beach were the skuas and giant petrels fighting over dead babies or afterbirth – nature in the raw.
The islands are the rims of two large volcano calderas with columnar basalt cliffs and caves occupied by nesting cormorants. The penguin species here is called the “yellow-eyed penguin” and their yellow eyes make them a bit evil-looking. At one landing we saw the remains of the German 1874 scientific expedition to study the transit of Venus across the sun and at our final landing we took a short walk to see a sad little cemetery. There have been many shipwrecks on these islands and castaways found it very hard to survive. A couple of the headstones read “died of starvation”.
I don’t think I told you about one lovely afternoon on the way from Macquarie Island to Commonwealth Bay. Although the sea was calm all the way it was also grey and overcast most of the time. However, on this one afternoon the sun appeared and so did a pod of Orcas. There were about thirty of them including mothers and their babies and they followed us for about half an hour leaping out of the water just alongside the ship. The photographers went mad including me and I have some great pictures of Killer Whales close up, splashing out of deep blue water with a trail of spray glistening behind them.
The sea has been pretty rough the whole journey home and it is difficult to move about. People are careering about the dining room and crab-walking along hallways, it will be a real effort to pack in these conditions. Tomorrow is the last full day at sea and by Wednesday morning we will be in Hobart.
Home
It’s all over, we are now home after a slow trip back. I know I was hoping for some rough weather but it became a little tedious day after day. We had a headwind all the way home slowing us down. The trip from the Auckland Islands took us 5 days and we arrived in Hobart a day late causing a big hassle for the Cruise Company as they had to organise new travel arrangements for everyone. Some people had international connecting flights and others had complicated connections causing difficulties.
We finally berthed at Victoria Street Wharf on Thursday 7th January at 9 am and were bussed immediately to the airport. Our new flight involved changing planes at Melbourne then home to Sydney so we spent a lot of time waiting at airports. We finally arrived in Sydney at 5 pm.
On the last night at sea there were a few social events, drinks with the Captain (or should I say “Kapitan”) and after a lovely evening meal there was the “Marina Follies” to attend where talented fellow expeditioners sang or read poems about all of our experiences. They were very good and it was a most enjoyable evening. It was sad saying farewell to so many new friends.
Margaret Whitelaw
