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 (...
Well ‘swamps’ did warn us from day one! “There are only 64 days left before we sail back to the mainland. And when you take out Christmas, New Year, bad weather, ship visits, sea lion bites, etc.; well, you might as well pack up now”! Swamps, alias Mark Crompton, weather observer, is the official ray of sunshine. But in a sense he was right. The 9 weeks at the beginning seemed to stretch out forever into the...
-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...
