02 Feb 2022

The Coves, Caves, Clefts and Cliffs of the Antipodes Islands

The Antipodes appeared in the grey morning light at 0630 hours as Spirit of Enderby sailed up the West Coast around the spectacular undercut cliffs and amphitheatre of Bollons and Archway Islands, to Anchorage Bay.

The twin-masted Evoe anchored nearby was busy discharging a BBC crew to film Antipodean Albatross for Frozen Planet 2. Finding the usually exposed West Coast of the island so benign, we immediately set off to explore it, and what a treat! We meandered in and out of storm-gouged coves, caves, clefts and cliffs, watching colony after colony of Erect-crested Penguins, sprinkled with Rockhoppers, from our Zodiacs.

A couple of flaky-skinned moulting Elephant Seals lay on a boulder-strewn beach while Subantarctic Fur Seals and their pups watched us warily, some making their strange high-pitched wail. A Light-mantled Sooty Albatross cry made us look up to its nest above a sea cave, just as its mate came in to land and exchange nest duties

The volcanic rock-forms had us spellbound: columnar basalt, some vertical, some 'exploded' into giant asterisks in the cliff faces; layers of fine ash with some layers grey, others brick-red; layers of ash-embedded volcano-thrown boulders as big as cars. And high above it all, Antipodean Wandering Albatross soaring.

We continued on past the Windward Isles, right around and into the enormous gaping caves on the south coast, and up to Albatross Point. True to its name, a good number of Antipodean Wandering Albatross, their wingspans up to 3.5 metres, soared low over the large swells and directly over our Zodiacs.

We rendezvoused with our trusty expedition ship for lunch at Ringdove Bay, before carrying on by Zodiac up the East Coast as far as Alert Bay; almost a complete circumnavigation.  We all managed to see both the Reischek's and Antipodean Parakeet species before returning to ship, taking a 'sub-polar plunge' into the sapphire-coloured water, and setting off for The Bounty Islands.

As we passed the northern end of the Antipodes, we talked by radio (on speaker), to Graeme Elliot and Kath Walker, who have been monitoring the Antipodean Albatross there since 1994. They told us about the continuing deadly decline of breeding females on the island due to international long-line fishing and are hoping that publicity from Frozen Plant 2, with its estimated audience of one billion viewers, might influence consumers and fishers alike.

Image from file © S.Howell, Heritage Expeditions