January 8 - 11, 2025 - Subantarctic Islands and at sea
So what does one need when traveling through both warm climates, cooler climates with chance of showers, rain, and storms, then head to the dry and freezing Antarctic? Oh, and enough clothing for a five week trip with only one necessary washing? Let’s see.
Starting on the left:
Trusty camera/binocular/miscellaneous bag. This green back has toured the world.
Heated vest
Waterproof, lined pants (eliminates the need for thermal wear)
Heated gloves (2 pairs since one may get wet)
Heated glove liners (one needs a finger for photography and if your hand is out of the glove for too long, it gets too cold to move). This is a new item for us.
Ski goggles (Jeff Disney’s suggestion since we are going further south than last time and felt it might assist in protecting our eyes).
Dry bag for miscellaneous items like phone and camera attachments
Various neck and head gear. If a hat gets wet, or you sweat through (Jody) your neck protector, it’s handy to have extra. Thankfully, not particularly bulky items when packing!
Heavy wool socks (thank you Laura!). We did not like the heated socks and have brought toes warmers should we need them.
Smart wool undergarments.
The blue jacket is waterproof and has a hood. This came in handy during our week in New Zealand and an integral part of the Subantarctic portion of this trip.
What is not shown is the jacket we will wear once we get to the Antarctic. It will be drier during this portion of the trip, but temperatures may go as low as 7 degrees F. Heritage Expeditions will be supplying heavier jackets for this part of the trip, so we did not have to carry/pack ours.
We have jeans and sweatpants for time spent on the ship. No one gets “dressed up”, but rather nice casual. Comfort is the name of the game! AND, on board, we typically carry our backpack /carry bag with our binoculars and camera should there be a whale/dolphin/penguin/seal, or special bird outside while we are en route to our next destination. It isn’t unusual to be in the middle of a meal, and an announcement comes that there are sightings (eg, long finned pilot whales and Bottleneck dolphins) alongside the ship!
It’s exciting to board our ship knowing we will be on board for 26 days and a relief to settle, not having to pack and unpack each time we go to another destination! This is the beginning of our “expedition” - the difference between this and a “cruise” is that we know the start and end point (Bluff harbor), but in between depends on weather, ocean, ice, and wild life encountered along the way, although we have a general concept of our goals (e.g., the Ross Sea in Antarctica).
We boarded Heritage Adventurer in Bluff at the South end of the South Island of New Zealand. After a brief orientation (including giving us instructions in case we have to abandon ship!!), we left on a short trip to Stewart Island, already a deviation from our itinerary, due to high winds and huge swells at our next destination, The Snares (below).
So on Jan 9 we arrived at Steward Island where we had two beautiful hikes. Steward Island is a relatively large island off the coast of the South Island that still enjoys its natural environment. All over NZ, the government (and the population) makes huge efforts to preserve its natural beauty and original native species of plants and animals (both on land and in the water - both sea and inland). Ulva Island, for example, has only two non-native plants that have been introduced - otherwise everything there is the same as it was hundreds of years ago (they eliminated rats over a four year period and still monitor for rats in case they accidentally are reintroduced). Our morning was on a small neighboring island, Ulva - lots to see - interesting mosses/lichens, some beautiful birds (yellowhead, white robin, and fascinating fern trees. In the afternoon we took another hike on Stewart Island itself, from one shore (Kaipipi) to the town of Oman (pop 300). We spent several hours keeping our eyes peeled, unsuccessfully, for a blue mushroom - one of the guides in our group found one (photo). A small but well organized museum in Oban occupied the remainder of our day.
That evening we sailed to The Snares, a small group of islands (rocks, really) in the middle of the Tasman Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean). On Jan 10, we were greeted by Snare Crested Penguins swimming in the water, “porpoising” all around us. Starting at 9am, in the most ideal weather (blue sky, sheltered sea) that many of the guides and other experienced travelers had not seen in the area, we spent 2 1/2 hours moving from one end to the other of the main island (North East Island) comprised of large rocky cliffs with many birds (Giant Petrels, Albatross, Antarctic Terns, etc), seals including many fur and one large elephant seal, and the star of the show, the Snare Crested Penguin who populated most of the open areas. The largest group was on a “penguin slide”, an open area on the side of a cliff where penguins freely moved up and down the side of the cliff. We were fortunate to also see one Erect Crested Penguin, a very shy little guy who did not want to pose for us. Several people saw a couple of small Blue Penguins, but sadly, we didn’t see them.
After a wonderful morning we began our 1 1/2 day sail to Macquarie Island (Australia!). Today (Jan 11) was pure lectures, relaxation, and preparation for a full day at Macquarie Island tomorrow.
Of note, we have generally had weather around 50F - comfortable. Ocean has 2-3 meter swells (6-9 feet) - for the most part, we are doing well in these conditions.
The chef on board is the same chef we had on our first trip to Antarctica. Food has been fabulous so far!
Comments
Post a Comment