Antarctica part 4--Campbell Island

Campbell Island ---like Macquarie Island (see earlier post) ---is one of the so-called sub-Antarctic islands which lie just outside the Antarctic Convergence or Polar Front,  where the currents and winds seal in the extreme cold of  Antarctica. In the matter of a few miles the air and water temperature rise as you cross back over the Polar Front. The islands that lie north of the Polar Front are still at much lower latitudes than the earth’s inhabited land masses and are in the Southern Ocean, but since they lie outside the Polar Front they are green and usually snow free and have a stable temperature hovering around freezing of 5 or so degrees above.

Campbell Island is perched on the continental shelf which  extends  out from New Zealand, and is close to the “triple junction” of the Antarctic, Pacific and Australian plates. Its geology is very different from Macquarie Island (see earlier blog post).  It is made of columnar basalt with volcanic origins ---11 to 6 million years ago. It was then glaciated in last two million years. it is now covered with a thick layer of peat on which the special vegetation of Campbell thrives. There is little snow and temperatures rise to around 8 to 10 in summer.

The coastline on the east side is deeply indented with fjords, the result of glacial activity. Perseverance Harbour is the longest of these fjords and is the playground of sea lions, shags (cormorants), yellow eyed penguins and the world's rarest duck, the Campbell Island teal. Campbell has a number of smaller islands off shore, most not more than jagged peaks rising from the water.

Its vegetation has some similarities to Macquarie Island including the megaherbs, which are thought to be remnants of pre ice-age flora. They have large leaves to absorb as much of the limited sunshine as possible and are capable of living in the acidic impoverished soil and have large showy flowers to attract the limited number of insects. 

The only penguins on Campbell are the yellow-eyed penguins which are only found in New Zealand. However there is much more vegetation on Campbell Island than on Macquarie Island and there are many pretty flowering plants. Some of these are non-native since the island, which was discovered in 1810, was the home of sealers and whalers and was even farmed up to 1931 when the Great Depression put an end to the farms. 

New Zealand awoke sooner than Australia to the need to preserve these delicate environments and so Campbell Island was not as ravaged as Macquarie Island was and is 20 years ahead of Macquarie in regeneration. It was New Zealand which led the way in eradicating introduced species: feral cattle and sheep were eliminated in 1992 and in 2001 Campbell was rat-free. For years after the Second World War it was a New Zealand weather station but is now unoccupied and is a New Zealand nature reserve and the vegetation and bird populations are flourishing.

The island is best known as a favourite nesting site for the albatross and we saw many of them up close . The albatross is an enormous bird with a wing span or 3 metres (10 feet). However it only weighs about 8 kilo because their bones are hollow so as to reduce their weight for the months they spend soaring out at sea. They are pretty clumsy on land but the only time they spend on land is to build a nest and incubate their egg and raise their chick. They mate for life and both parents share the incubation and raising of the chick which takes a full year. They only lay one egg every second year. But they live to 60 or 80 years. Like the penguins they are quite unconcerned about the presence of human beings and they don’t even stir as you pass their nests.

We lucked out at last and had stunningly beautiful weather so we all enjoyed Campbell Island to the full. There are very few fine days--Campbell Island gets 1450 millimetres of rain each year and only 650 hours of sun --and we had 6 of them continuously. We have a 6 km hike across the island and revelled in the warm sunshine and the vivid colours of the vegetation after so many days living in a monochrome world.

Photos below:

the sea foaming outside our cabin as we moved north through stormy weather

Cambell Island with some of its smaller off-shore islands

The basalt cliffs lining the fjord  where Perseverance Harbour is located

Approaching the abandoned meteorological station at the end of Perseverance Harbour

A Campbell Island shag (cormorant)

two different kinds of albatrosses soar above the sea

another albatross wheeling around to catch the wind currents

The yellow-eyed penguins swim around our ship

A yellow-eyed penguin

The shrubs and heath plants near the harbour

A sea-lion wallow. We didn't see any but these wallows are where they raise their young and maybe  as much as half a kilometre up a grassy slope

the Campbell Island pipit--very tame

More of the shrubs near the harbour. Some of these are so called tree grasses which can grow to several metres tall 

our walk across the island

a view back over the end of the main fjord

our ship in the fjord of Perseverance Harbour

beautiful flowers on our walk

a small succulent-like ground -hugging plant

one of the daisy-like megaherbs

Believe it or  not but the stalk of brown pompoms is the Campbell Island carrot!

a cushion plant

another view from our walk

An albatross sitting on its nest

and close up

This nest was right beside the path. It gives an idea of the size of these albatrosses---the path was about 18 inches wide

an albatross just about to take flight

The view from a cliff on the far side of the island with albatrosses wheeling above

this is a group of bachelor albatrosses, who have not found a mate

shift changeover as one parent lands to take over incubation duties from the other

the pair grooming each other as part of the hand-over ritual

the view from the highest point. The wind was incredibly strong and blew several people off the pathway

me leaning into the wind to keep my balance