An email from Carla about how we would celebrate Christmas and New Year away from Campbell Island got a few Christmas memories going for the CIBE team. For Mark Crompton his Campbell Island Christmas memories are:
"Songs down at the wharf, Mountford pinot, mussels fritters, vodka steeped in sweet vernal, tangos...
-SMcM.jpg "Timber and rubbish under the floor of the Beeman Base Hostel was about to get the 'old heave-ho'")
-SMcM.jpg "Some of the rubbish left under the Hostel floor, stacked and ready for removing.")
-SMcM.jpg "Steve Croasdale, having come in from a spot of painting, decided to make his first ever flaky pastry - from scratch. Photo Shelley McMurtrie")
-SMcM.jpg "The pressure having got to him, Steve donned a 'cat in the hat' hat in lieu of a real chef's hat. Photo Shelley McMurtrie")
-SMcM.jpg "The finished product - a mince pie that was delish! Cheers Steve. Photo Shelley McMurtrie")
Steve Croasdale was our ‘can do’ handy man on the expedition. While he didn’t pop up a lot in our island blogs he was always there working away on repairing and maintaining the base camp buildings on behalf of the Met Service.
Part of this involved clearing out the rubbish that had accumulated under the floor of the Hostel building for many years. A number of strange items came out of that pile, but among...
With the one-year anniversary of our expedition to Campbell Island upon us, I have dragged out the video tapes and taken a trip down memory lane. One video that I know many of you were hoping to see was of our trip down to the island – charging through the raging seas of the roaring forties and furious fifties. Who can forget the excitement of the departure, with this being the first sojourn for the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Offshore Patrol Vessels (...
-SMcM.jpg "Colin welcoming Norm to the island on their arrival with the Maia, resplendent in their Swazi jackets to keep the rain off.")
-SMcM.jpg "Mark Hammond, skipper and owner of the Maia, and his crew (Eddie and Pete) readying the tender to take the history team ashore at Northeast Harbour.")
-SMcM.jpg "Our Watties pantry at base camp – Watties, what else!")
-SMcM.jpg "After a day painting, Steve C is in the kitchen making puff pastry for a mince pie, using Back Country Cuisine freeze-dried mince. Who says you can’t be a painter, plumber, and cook!")
-SMcM.jpg "Steve’s fantastic mince pie is washed down with a Mountford Pinot Noir – fabulous!")
-SMcM.jpg "There are a lot of coffee drinkers on this trip that are just loving the C4 coffee.")
-SMcM.jpg "Nigel Prickett at Southeast Hut (the Valya) making good use of the Survival Kit Company first aid kit supplies.")
-SMcM.jpg "Steve C and Mark C cleaning up the broken window that broke in the new years high winds.")
This is a personal thank you to all the individuals and organisations that have made the archaeological assessment of Campbell Island’s historic sites possible. It is an all time first.
This thank you comes a little early because the expedition is not yet over but I’ve seen and experienced enough to know that the expedition would not have been possible without sponsorship, donations, and technical support and assistance.
From a personal point of view the most...
-SMcM.jpg "The Maia crew bringing in the boat (skipper Mark on the 'roof') with the Tiama in the background.")
-SMcM.jpg "Eddie who always drew the short straw to bring us ashore in the rough conditions, and who always ended up having to get his feet wet – thanks Eddie!")
-SMcM.jpg "The team enjoying the wonderfully plush interior (skipper Mark is on the right).")
-SMcM.jpg "Alex and my last day in the field. Together we have clocked up over 100km walking in waders - maybe enough for the Guinness Book!")
-SMcM.jpg "Alex and Annabel walking back from trying to get round the point in Garden Cove to get a radio line-of-sight to signal to the Maia for pickup.")
-SMcM.jpg "A quick photo shoot before the Maia pickup (Colin and Alex F didn't quite make it back in time).")
-SMcM.jpg "Expedition leader (Colin) and coordinator (Shelley) with the artists Ben and Annabel who are about to depart on the Maia.")
It is 10.30pm and I am just back from taking photos in the waning light and persistent drizzle. The base is quiet with the Maia having just left, sounding its fog horn as it lifted anchor and drifted off into the rain and mist. In a way it is like the silence that descends on a house when the kids have gone back to school, that seems all the more quiet after the fun and laughter of the school holidays (funny I should be using that simile given that I have no children of my own!). With our...
-SMcM.jpg "The Campbell Island Bicentennial Expedition (CIBE) team.")
-SMcM.jpg "The CIBE team, with Colin showing off his battle scars from the sea lion encounter and Shelley having grown a nice plush beard (in past expedition photos everyone seems to have hairy faces so why fight tradition?).")
-SMcM.jpg "The CIBE team and the two artists (Ben front left, Annabel front right).")
-SMcM.jpg "The CIBE team, the two artists, and the Maia crew (captain, Mark Hammond is to the right of Colin Meurk who is holding the sign).")
With the Maia here for four days we had the opportunity to follow the time honoured tradition of taking an expedition team photo. The usual place for this is down at the wharf by the ‘Welcome to Campbell Island’ sign, but the island had other plans for us. We awoke this morning to steady rain and low cloud that gave the definite impression that it had comfortably settled in with its feet up, and had no intention of moving on for some time.
The process of taking any type...
While in this World Heritage location we have to be especially careful to avoid damaging the environment and disturbing the wildlife. We endeavour to apply the 5 m rule – giving any birds or marine mammals a wide berth. Of course there is nothing in the manual about the wildlife disturbing us! For example, pipits don’t (as Pete McClelland succinctly puts it) observe the 5 m rule and frequently slow down ‘traffic’ by insisting on running along the tracks in front of...
My heart is nailed to Campbell Island
like the aluminium pegs pushed in peat 40 years past
to mark plots with unknown futures
but with some secret aspiration to monitor vegetation change
forever -
attributed to sheep forgotten by shepherds half a century before
And here i am again
trying to locate these spots, being covered over by peat and plants
with fading memories and sepia pics
with fading muscles on spongy puds –...
Campbell Island is really an archipelago of little dots in the ocean. On a larger scale it is part of the NZ bioregion’s subantarctic island domain comprising the Bounty’s, Antipodes, Snares, Aucklands, Campbell and Macquarie Islands (the last is a territory of Australia). Many of the islands are highly significant as refuges and as geographic limits, and for the memories they bring back to me.
In December 1980 ecologist Martin Foggo and I were dropped by helicopter...
The Island is small but it expands according to the difficulty of walking in the soft pillows of peat, moss and swamp. And there is so much packed into such a small space, and its ever-changing moods make Campbell Island such an intense and rich experience. Although movement around the island requires a high level of fitness many of the island’s plants and animals that contribute to its magic are readily accessible. This was most apparent yesterday as we sat on the jetty with...
Christmas on Campbell Island is a bit different to your normal NZ Christmas. The weather for one thing is a lot harsher down here, and there are also jobs to do before we can relax on Christmas morning. After a morning wakeup call we ripped into our Saturday morning base camp clean up (always on a Saturday and not even Christmas can prevent it) and then it was time to relax.
So for a Christmas mid-morning 'Champaign' (or in our case Mountford Riesling wine) celebration we...
-SMcM.jpg "The team having a lovely Christmas dessert.")
-SMcM.jpg "The Mountford Christmas wine selection was devine.")
-SMcM.jpg "Mark trying his Mum’s Christmas cake – it was delish!")
It’s Christmas Night 2010 and the Campbell Island Bicentennial Expedition has been here for nearly three weeks. Carla Meurk and Alex Fergus put on a fine Christmas Dinner and as is traditional we all ate too much. Between the main course and dessert our Leader, Colin Meurk, put on a treasure hunt and it struck a distant chord from childhood birthday parties over 50 years ago.
After dinner I walked around to the old Coastwatcher’s Camp in Tucker Cove and it suddenly...
-SMcM.jpg "The 2010 Campbell Island Christmas choir.")
-SMcM.jpg "The rain comes in and chases everyone away.")
Christmas morning on Campbell Island was a little different to past Christmases on the mainland I have experienced. It started relatively normally with a tasty pancake breakfast, but since it was a Saturday, our scheduled base cleaning day, after breakfast I was cleaning toilets. While there is nothing particularly difficult about cleaning toilets, it is probably not something most people would usually undertake on Christmas morning.
Once the base was spick and span, we then had to...
One of the many memorable and distinctive aspects of our daily interactions with and experiences of Campbell Island is the ever shifting patterns of light, colour, shade, dark, gloom and even (!) dismal conditions.
The sun and wind continually play moody tunes on the sea, wildlife, plants and our very existence on the Island. It is not exactly subsistence; but there is deprivation – ambient inside temperatures are around 10 degrees celsius so it is even a struggle to keep...
The NZ book titled ‘a river rules my life’ comes to mind down here on Campbell Island. Not because we are sampling streams, but because of the similarity to how our lives are completely ruled by a single factor - the weather.
The evenings end with Mark Crompton downloading the weather fax at 10.15pm and writing a forecast that is posted on the hallway wall the following morning. The day then progresses either along the forecasted weather route or can deviate remarkably...
-SMcM.jpg "View of Beeman Base from the wharf on a sunny day.")
.jpg "View of Beeman Base from the wharf on a cloudy but calm day.")
-SMcM.jpg "Some great cloud formations on a sunny day (Beeman Hill on left, Tucker Cove in the distance on the right).")
The NZ book titled ‘a river rules my life’ comes to mind down here on Campbell Island. Not because we are sampling streams, but because of the similarity to how our lives are completely ruled by a single factor - the weather.
Days can progress either along the forecasted weather route (thanks Mark) or can deviate remarkably, although in our meteorologist's sage words (that's Mark), he is rarely wrong... What ever happened to that snow fall you predicted?
...
It is challenging to move about and work on Campbell Island. The lower slopes are covering with dense dwarf forest and chest high tussocks. The ground is soggy and uneven and a mislaid step can easily wake a napping sea lion. Most of the time they are only mildly annoyed, but some of the young males have a chip on their shoulder and can be aggressive. They’re large animals, with two inch yellow incisors, and they drool. It takes nerve to stand your ground when they come loping at you...
The CIBE members live in the MetService Annex building which overlooks Perseverance Harbour. The Annex is quite comfortable, the inside temperature ranges a bit above ambient; chilly when its clagged in and slimy outside, but our main living room is oriented to capture the sun on fine days.
Meals have been feats of culinary masterpiece complimented by a selection of fine wines donated by our sponsor Mountford Estate. One would have thought, fish pie, chicken curry, brownies and...
Carla’s human impacts monitoring saw us advancing under glorious sunshine to North West Bay. We clambered up from the Capstan Cove beach, through the goblin forest of Dracophyllum (turpentine scrub), and were met with a bark. As Carla puts it, a young female sea lion took exception to our presence — conceivable, given she did her best to hurry us into the little A-frame hut she was defending. I am more of the view that this young lioness was a lone hut warden, embracing,...
.jpg "Looking across to the Otago in Perseverance Harbour")
-SMcM.jpg "The offloading of people from the Wellington begins")
-SMcM.jpg "Before anything can happen we have to clear the growth from the railway tracks for the trolly winch")
-SMcM.jpg "Alex J and Steve C clearing the upper part of the winch track")
-SMcM.jpg "The locals wondering what all these people are doing on their patch")
-SMcM.jpg "Thank god for the trolley winch!")
-SMcM.jpg "Another quarantine check before we can open anything")
I am sitting here in relative luxury in the MetService Hostel on Campbell Island, with a light on, the computer going, and the dulcet tones of Fat Freddys Drop playing – all thanks to the wiring genius of Steve Croasdale and Wayne (MetService chaps) plus our cute wee generator. The base is cold though with no heating - not too much difference between inside and outside temps (burr).
We arrived at Campbell Island two days ago with snow on the hills and it continued to snow off...
3 days of unpacking and prepping has been followed by 32 hours on a rolling ocean (up to sea-state 5 in navy speak). The seventy five percent of the team that remained bedridden at sea have risen, and spirits are high. Sleet has given way to snow to sun to wind to rain and now it’s calm on our 3rd evening. Until now our exploration of the island's biotic bustle has been limited, but come nightfall each evening a few of us have had the chance to start exploring the boardwalk...
-SMcM.jpg "'Wellington' whisk Kevin Stinson and XO Layman with DOC staff Pete and Dave checking the gear manifest list")
-SMcM.jpg "The HMNZS Wellington in harbour at Bluff")
-SMcM.jpg "On the bridge of the Wellington")
-SMcM.jpg "My home for the trip to Campbell Island – very cosy")
-SMcM.jpg "We're on our way, with the Otago ready to follow")
-SMcM.jpg "The Harbour Master leaving the Wellington as we depart Bluff harbour")
-SMcM.jpg "My first view of the southern ocean as we come into the lee of Campbell Island")
It is a funny thing but the one topic of conversation on a ship heading to the Subantarctics isn’t about the splendor of your destination but about whether or not you will be bringing up your lunch on the way down. Thanks to a work Christmas function on my last night in Christchurch I had plenty of gory seasick disaster stories (thanks Dave!) vying for attention in my mind to keep my immediate future ripe with technicolour possibilities…
Of course in usual style we...
On the day of their departure, Sarah Bedford (Cue TV) interviewed Shelley McMurtrie (Expedition Coordinator) about the upcoming expedition to Campbell Island. Sarah wanted to know about the research, but more importantly, what the team was going to crave while on this remote island for 9 weeks.
[Shelley McMurtrie]
-SMcM.jpg "The main store room where the food is put into bins and gear arranged")
-SMcM.jpg "Packing the food so that each bin is about 20kg - saves any stuffed backs during the loading/unloading")
-SMcM.jpg "It looks like a mess but there's a method there somewhere!")
-SMcM.jpg "Teir two of the quarantine process - packing gear in the quarantine room")
-SMcM.jpg "Loading up the trucks. Thank god for Gilly and the wee forklift!")
-SMcM.jpg "Anyone know where the nearest petrol station is?")
-SMcM.jpg "Cheryl from DOC cleaning the wheels of the trailer")
-SMcM.jpg "The final gear to be loaded - Alex Fergus' insect nets")
It's 3pm on Monday (6th Dec) and in around five hours we will be on the HMNZS Wellington making our way to Campbell Island. Just enough time then to get some photos loaded and write a quick blog! Sorry but I didn't manage to get a video clip together (gave up editing around 11pm last night).
So lets backtrack to last Friday...
Alex James, Mark Crompton, and I flew down to Invercargill on Friday (3rd Dec) while Colin and co. had driven down the previous day....
Alex J, Mark C, and I arrived early Friday arvo and there was no time to waste; we were thrown right into the thick of the quarantine process. I must say, there's nothing like spending time in a warehouse with the bright sun overhead to help acclimatise for Campbell Island - was more suited to preparing for humid tropical rainforests! Can you believe it, Invercargill was in the mid-to-high twenties.
By the time Sunday arvo rolled around we were all done, and only a couple of...
-SMcM.jpg "Erron Henderson (Manager of EOS) showing Alex and Shelley how to use the satellite phone - it works!")
-SMcM.jpg "Amber and Michelle from EOS loading up the van - good tetris packing skills")
-SMcM.jpg "Colin helping to load the most important item - the generator!")
-SMcM.jpg "Shelley having a photo shoot with The Press photographer while the EOS crew work hard in the background")
-SMcM.jpg "Alex J with a load for the trailer")
-SMcM.jpg "Nick from EOS loading up the trailer")
-SMcM.jpg "Waving goodbye - only an 8hr drive with a full van and trailer Colin!")
Wednesday dawned and the calmness of the day was broken by the sound of packing tape and the click of the camera shutter. The big packup day had arrived and we looked at the van and small trailer and wished we had ordered up the Tardis instead. But the 'Tetris' packing skills of team EOS were impressive as boxes were crammed into the smallest spaces. It should be said that Colin and I managed to get out of some of the packing when we were interviewed by The Press' environmental...
9 weeks on a remote island with no power or supermarket means it's a good idea to trial the food first. Having worked through our nutritional requirements, Suzanne Henderson (SJ Consulting) developed our menu and shopping list. She also thought it a good idea to come over and demonstrate how to cook a couple of the evening meals. This time it was the fish pie - you might be able to tell we quite liked it.
[Shelley McMurtrie]
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