The End of the Adventure

I am on Air New Zealand flight 161 heading directly home from Christchurch to Perth, and suffering almost immediate anticlimax at the end of an amazing adventure.  Tonight I will be sleeping in my own bed, unbelievably last night I was sleeping on the ship! It is always a wrench saying goodbye to people you have met on trips, and this was a very special group in many ways, very easy to get along with.  The connections I made particularly with the wonderful staff I hope to consolidate, and I feel some of them are destined to become good friends! 

I will shortly update the blog with more detail and add the pictures, so watch this space!

It is a privilege to visit any part of Antarctica, but this is the part very few people get to visit.  Put Antarctica on the Bucket List!

Snares Cruising..or not!

Yet another day's sail towards the final stop on this epic adventure, the Snares islands, and people are definitely going stir crazy again!  The seas have been relatively calm, and enabled many to venture outside for bird photography and some fresh air. We missed the Snares on the way down due to the excessive turbulence, and it was no guarantee that the zodiac cruising would go ahead.

However at 0630 we got the wake up call to man the zodiacs for a pre-breakfast cruise along the rugged muscovite granite rocks which are the Snares. At least, most of us heard the call.  I didn't!  So a very disappointed geologist was left to forlornly watch the zodiacs cruise along the shoreline, looking for the endemic Snares crested penguins, whilst she practiced her bird photography on the wheeling   Albatross and sooty shearwaters (I did mention bird nerd!).

Highlight of the day as we left the shelter of the Snares to head home to the port of Bluff were a pod of around six orcas or killer whales swimming right alongside the ship, weaving under and across and playing with us for around an hour or so!  Makes everything worth it!

Campbell Island and the World's Loneliest Tree

               

You cannot imagine how glad 50-odd stir-crazy people sailing one of the older ladies of Russian research vessels were after reaching the shelter of Perseverance Harbour on Campbell Island, one of the World Heritage listed New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands.  Apart from many, many trips up and down stairs, there is really nowhere to go to get some exercise to burn off the calories delivered to us every day by the two superb chefs on the vessel! So the prospect of either a 12km “Long Walk” or a 5km “Short Walk” on the island was appealing to just about everyone, including the Russian staff.

There is a very well-constructed boardwalk for the Short Walk which leads up to the nesting site of the southern Royal Albatross on the western side of the island. However, it is mostly uphill, and the steps have quite a high rise.  A challenge for those with Bad Knees, but gotta say mine held up really well – a bit stiff from using muscles that haven’t been used in a while, but overall I am excited about the very possibility that most of my knee issues will become a thing of the past.

Prevailing easterly winds has meant the island has been shrouded in fog and light rain for most of the day.  Up in the hills, the endemic “megaherbs” are sight to be seen (more about them later) and also the nests of the Albatross.

A couple of hours resting in the tussock grass waiting for the albatross to start doing something (they have been described as being like teenagers, sleeping until around noon then starting to move after that!) did not alter the wetness factor, but it was still fun.  After waiting for around 4 hours, I moved my stiff muscles out of the tussock grass for a short meander back up the hill to the end of the boardwalk to warm up the muscles for the tricky descent down.  Tricky because it is much harder on knees going downhill than uphill, and combined with tiredness and sore muscles, could have represented a recipe for disaster!

Safely back on the ship, a hilarious auction in the bar for the Last Ocean organisation, which helps to monitor and hopefully eventually prevent the over-fishing of the Antarctic toothfish, was brilliantly handled by Lloyd.  I was very glad that my hand-knitted silk scarf went for $160, and that Catherine eventually ended up with it, as she had her eyes on it from the start.  As it was a gift from Wiebke, I have now undertaken to make her one as well.

A great Red Wine dinner with Cath, Nigel, Scott, Lloyd and Wiebke – they have been fantastic staff, great fun to be around, and hopefully we have all made the connections to become friends.  They know there is Open House in Perth for them!

Today an early morning zodiac cruise in the mist eventually led us to Camp Cove, where apart from a very stroppy sea lion, there grows the “Loneliest Tree in the World”, a spruce,  which during the time the island was “colonised” regularly had its top lopped off – probably for a Christmas tree!!

We are sailing, we are sailing..

               

…stormy waters, passing high clouds… I can guarantee Rod Stewart has probably never, ever experienced the kinds of seas we have been as we continue our travels north through the Southern Ocean towards our final landing stop, Campbell Island.

Most people have had their sea legs for a while – there are still a few who haven’t.  There have been numerous discussions on the merits of everyone’s particular choice of anti-seasickness medication.  It appears the majority on this ship have opted for the Scopolamine patches, with varying degrees of success.  My choice of Stugeron tablets has worked brilliantly for me on my past two trips to Antarctica, and has continued to do so on this trip.  The exception of course is the first night’s diabolical sail where the ship rattled and rolled everyone out of their bunks and into the toilets!

We are a couple of days away from Campbell Island, so everyone is busily going through their photos in preparation of the wonderful audiovisual presentation which Scott D will be putting together.  He blew us all away with his hastily put together presentation of some of his work – it is rare to find a photographer equally at home with wildlife, landscapes and portraits – every one of his photos tells a story - a true photojournalist!

Just to give some perspective on the very changeable weather down here – apparently in August, the annual pack ice which abounds at the top of the Ross Sea, usually making life difficult for any ships trying to break through to get down to McMurdo Station, was at its greatest extent in living memory.  A few months later, in January, the Akademik Shokalskiy was able to sail straight down into the Ross Sea with no problems (there was pack ice but very minimal) and even go further than any other ship by sailing right around to Scott Base. 

We have seen the weather change dramatically in a matter of a few minutes.  Life is never boring if you are a weather nerd in Antarctica!

From Holding Patterns to Ice Cruising

               

The weather has been teasing us the last couple of days.  Making our way back up north, hugged into the west coast of the Ross Sea (well it is west if we are travelling north!) along the Borchgrevink Coast, we aimed for and missed Coulman Island, Possession Islands, Cape Hallett, and the biggest blow, Cape Adare and Borchgrevink’s Hut.

It just hasn’t been safe enough to make any landings anywhere, due to either katabatic winds, excessive swell on the seas, too much ice on shore, a steep beach.  Frustrating and disappointing for everyone, as several times we went into a holding pattern at a location, hoping that with time the weather would improve and allow a landing.  In desperation, early morning and late evening zodiac cruises have been initiated, which simply resulted in frozen people (early morning) or under-exposed photography (late evening).  It is interesting how a few hundred nautical miles north has made a big difference to the lighting at night.  There is now almost a dark period from around 2-4am.

This morning, hopes were high for a landing, quickly dashed with the realisation that within 2 hours lots of ice had started to build up along the shore.  So an ice cruise in the zodiacs was initiated after breakfast, and we saw loads and loads of greasy brash ice with hundreds of Adelie penguins plopping about, either on the ice, in the ice, or porpoising in the water.  We chased a couple of Orcas for a while (Killer Whales) then headed back closer to the ice. 

The highlight for our zodiac was seeing a leopard seal rise straight out of the water and grab a penguin, three times!  We were a bloodthirsty lot in our zodiac!

PreCambrian Ecstasy in Gondwana

               

Finally we get to Terra Nova Bay, the site of some busy base activity.  The Italian Antarctic Base is there, and the (hopefully South) Koreans are busily building a swanky base in the bay next to Gondwana Base, which is unmanned by the Germans with bright orange pods!

The rocks!  The rocks are spectacular!  The rocks are the best example of PreCambrian basement rocks that we have seen!  I have got everyone interested in the volcanic side of things – they are all picking up bits of vesicular basalt and bringing them to me with great excitement to see if they have got it correctly identified!  But these rocks amazed everyone.

Greatly deformed gneisses with big biotite shears, microfaulting and folding, people recognised the granitic origin, even correctly identifying dolerite dykes intruding into the gneiss.  Up on the ridges lots of foliated gneiss weathered into sharp knife-like structures, and plenty of transported glacially and wind eroded rocks. Fascinating!

Even the skuas liked the rocks as they have built their nests there, and as there were a lot of chicks running around, there was plenty of divebombing of invading humans happening.

The afternoon was complete with a zodiac cruise around the icebergs to the edge of the glacier, one of my very favourite things to do.  The highlight was the beautiful emperor penguin standing at attention on an iceberg, very graciously allowing us all to take photos after which he dove into the water.

Back on board, the Gin and Tonic corner of the Bar/Library was temporarily located to the Bar itself due to invasion of computers, and with the hope of a 2am wake up call for a landing at Inexpressible Island in the pipeline, early-ish bed for everyone.

The 2am wakeup call turned into the 7am wakeup call due to the re-arrival of the katabatic winds howling throughout the night, so no landing on Inexpressible Island.  The other name for it should be Underwear Island, as in Regency and Victorian times, the English called all their undergarments “inexpressibles”! I know this for a fact because I have read Georgette Heyer novels!

The Great Katabatic Experience

                               

After staying in a holding pattern around Franklin Island, the katabatic winds prevented us from attempting a safe landing, so off we sailed north to the Drygalski Ice Tongue. 

Wind is a constant feature in Antarctica – many of the rocks show intense weathering from wind erosion, as does my face after I have been outside for any great length of time in the Antarctic cold!  Katabatic winds originate from the Polar Plateau, where the Transantarctic Mountains which split Antarctica into East and West are found.  They form when cold, dense air slides off the icecap under the influence of gravity, and can reach up to 150km/hour!  We certainly felt them coming off the land – one side of the ship was frozen very quickly, with icicles forming on the railings and the portholes.

Those adventurous enough (or foolhardy, depending on how you look at it) to venture outside found themselves hanging onto the railings for fear of being blown across the deck and over the railings on the other side!

Just as quickly as these katabatic winds arrive, they can dissipate, and by the time we reached the Drygalski Ice Tongue (DIT) at around 7am, the sun was out, the sky nearly cloudless and the seas gentle.  A stark contrast to the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS), the DIT represents a tongue of ice protruding into the sea at the termination of a glacier on the coastline.  It is much more rugged looking than the RIS, with lots of bits looking like they are very ready to break off into icebergs.

During the night, the katabatic winds rose again, and although the night’s sleep was good, I could hear the wind howling through the porthole, and in the morning the glass was coated with tiny ice crystals.  An effective way for facial dermabrasion, if I had thought of it earlier!

The Ross Ice Shelf

               

Penguins are very curious birds – one of the Adelies at Cape Bird seemed determined to come back to the ship after our visit – he jumped right out of the water onto the bow of Nigel’s zodiac.  He needed some encouragement to get back into the water, but was not content to stay there, as soon afterwards was seen jumping onto the bow of Mike’s zodiac!  It was the culmination of a great afternoon at Cape Bird, notwithstanding the big swell which had developed just as we were all trying to get into the zodiacs for the return to the ship.  I do believe some people were swamped!

A 2am wakeup call saw most of us up on the bridge (in broad daylight, or so it seemed) to view the immense Ross Ice Shelf.  It is the largest ice shelf in the world, bigger than France, about the size of Texas!  It floats!  The bridge is about 50 feet (20 metres) above sea level - where we first started cruising along, we were slightly above the level of the shelf, and it is very, very flat.  Moving deeper across the shelf, the height of the ice increased so that it was above the height of the ship!  So that means the shelf is up to 350 metres or 1,150 feet thick!!  You can imagine the explorers coming down into the Ross Sea, encountering the ice shelf, sailing for days along its margin trying to find a way through, and finally realising there wasn’t one! 

The captain has marked a new line on his map showing where the current line of the shelf is, which apparently is currently quite different from the original!

The Ross Ice Shelf is simply awesome!

Cape Royds and Cape Bird

               

I had a great night’s sleep last night.  Many of the team did not, as they went out after our busy day at around 10pm to climb Observation Point, the big hill between McMurdo Station and Scott Base.  My knees, which have been going really, really well, told me that it would be pushing it for me to do this particular hike, as it is up a very, very steep incline with switchbacks and plenty of scree to deal with downhill.

Just as well, as everyone apparently had a race up the hill!

During the night we made our way around Ross Island to Cape Royds, which is where Shackleton’s Nimrod Hut is located, as well as the most southern Adelie penguin rookery.  The weather apparently had been a bit dodgy in the “night” with katabatic winds sweeping past, bringing lots of small pieces of brash ice with it.  We had the option of two landings, depending on the weather.  The first, in Black Sands Beach, required a wet landing and a 40 minute hike over the basalt hills to the hut.  The second option was a landing in Back Door Bay, with a 15 minute walk to the hut.  Fortunately we were able to do the latter, and as it had been snowing, there was a light crust of snow on the ground which actually helped with the walking.

More about Shackleton’s Hut later, the landing was amazing, and highlighted at the end by a couple of huge leopard seals who decided to laze about on a small iceberg in the bay.

Immediately after lunch we set off for Cape Bird, the site of 3 large Adelie penguin rookeries.  We have just got back from this landing, which in itself was a challenge, with quite a swell onto the beach covered by lots of ice fragments.  It was cool to walk among the penguins, who have plenty of large chicks at the moment.

It will be hard to beat this, but I am sure the team are working on it!  Hard to believe we are only half way through the trip!

Science is alive and well in Antarctica

               

Today on the last day of January 2014, we snuck into the US Antarctic Base McMurdo Station, just before the ship arrived to resupply/redeploy.  The timing was fortunate, and we were all very excited to catch a glimpse of life on this gigantic science station.  The ice this year is so lean that they have been having a few problems with the ice runway!

We saw the Science Laboratory, National Science Foundation Chalet, with all the flags and the bust of Byrd outside, the Chapel of the Snows, the General Store (with ATM), the MacOps centre where the call centre, air traffic management and weather station are located, and finally coffee and yummy cookies in the Coffee House, which was the original building at the station and is an old aircraft half cylinder galvanised iron building (can’t remember what they are called!)

After lunch back on the ship we sailed on round Observation Point to the New Zealand Antarctic Station at Scott Base.  This is significant!  Apparently this is the first time in anyone’s knowledge that a ship has been able to sail into Scott Base.  Usually the ice is so packed in, the original plan was to zodiac back to the McMurdo landing, and drive over to the base.  We believe the Akademik Shokalskiy has sailed further south now than any other ship in memory!

Scott Base is like the small boutique station compared to the huge metropolis of McMurdo.  They all utilise each other’s services, but they are polar opposites (pun intended) as to how they operate.  McM is very regimented, Scott Base very typically laid back.

A great day was completed with a quick visit back to McMurdo to visit the currently-undergoing-restoration Scott’s Discovery Hut at Hut Point.  It looks just like an Australian outback house with the verandah surrounding all sides – in fact it did originally come from Australia.

Fortunately they will be keeping the wood a natural colour.  Scott Base buildings are all painted a very bright hospital green – must have had a sale on paint!  However they did redeem themselves by providing yummy scones for us for afternoon tea!