Deborah's travels: Auckland Islands

This morning we got up early and were taken by zodiac to Enderby Island, part of the group of Auckland Islands. Enderby, like most of the islands in the group, is pest free. However, Auckland Island (by far the largest) still has cats, mice and pigs. We landed at the opposite end of the beach than we expected, because sea lions had taken over our landing area, and there were also elephant seals on the beach. It was good that we landed at that end because we saw yellow eyed penguins (you can’t go closer than 50 metres to yellow eyed penguins because they’re very shy and don’t even like other penguins).

We also gave wide berth to the sea lions (they need 20 metres) and managed not to disturb them as we went towards the boardwalk which would take us across the plateau to the other side of the island.

When we returned to the beach, the sea lions were rather stroppy, and kept on chasing us. People needed to fend them off by standing still with umbrellas and sticks raised at 45 degrees, but as soon as the person holding the implements turned around, the sea lions continued to chase us. The houses are used for research and are rarely used.

We walked through the forest before coming to the boardwalk over the plain.

There were many mega flora on the plain.

A spider’s web

And albatrosses were flying around

And nesting.

The boardwalk finished at the other side of the island, so we had a chance to see everything again on the way back.

After the walk, we loaded into the zodiacs and cruised around the edge of the bay. Unfortunately, I’d run out of battery, so I couldn’t take pictures, but we saw a lot more yellow eyed penguins, and a lot of column basalt.

In the afternoon we went out in the zodiacs to Musgrave Inlet on Auckland Island itself, and, where the cliffs were so sheer that cats and pigs couldn’t venture,