Circling the Snares

Katrina Goddard, Forest & Bird’s Marine Advocate is exploring the sub-Antarctic Islands with Heritage Expeditions. This is her diary from day 2 of the trip. 

All I can say is that the taxi driver was right. Last night and most of today has been a ‘rolling goodtime’. However, I did manage to get a few hours sleep and was feeling pretty great when we arrived at the Snare Islands – clearly prevention was key.

Despite it still be a little rough at the Snares, nature came to visit us. My highlights were seeing the Snares crested penguins and watching the Buller’s mollywawk glide over the waves.

Buller’s Mollymawk (Photo by Craig McKenzie

Heritage staff were so helpful pointing birds out and giving a great account of the island’s history.

Cliffs along the coast of the Snares Islands (Photo by Kimberley Collins)

Next it was time to get into the zodiacs to explore the coastline and get up close and personal with the islands – without actually landing on them as that’s prohibited and for good reason since the Snares have never experienced mammalian pest invasion.

When the skipper gave the call we were good to go nearly all the passengers were dressed in their warmest cameras ready on deck waiting. I was near the front and was able to get into the first zodiac however we hadn’t got far when we got the call from the skipper to abandon the trip. The weather gods were not in our favour and safety is number one. I have to admit I was a tad disappointed but we will try on our way home to stop and explore the mystical Snares Island.

Now it’s time to ride these waves lying down as we will be at the Auckland Islands early hours tomorrow and this is what I am most looking forward to.