Research Diary

Misty conditions in the morning. The day begins with a birthday chant for Klemens. At around 8am we lift the anchor and steam across to Bollons Island. The steepness of the submerged crater make it hard to imagine that there are penguin colonies on its slopes. The first colony we spot is on Archway Island, essentially part of the crater but separated from main Bollons by a narrow gap.

The penguin colony is sitting halfway up the southern side of the island connected to the sea by a rock slope. Tiny white dots are moving up and down that slope while we sit on deck of the Evohe and observe through our binoculars.

There is a bit of drizzle in the air so that we are unsure whether flying the drone is an option. While we still weigh our options, Robin spots another penguin colony in what appears to be the most unlikely place on Bollons Island, about two thirds the way up the inner crater wall. How they get there, we don’t know. Eventually, Richie launches his drone and scouts the Archway Island colony before flying over to t the Bollons colony to take a series of photos for us to count birds. There seem to be Rockhoppers mingling with the Erect-crested penguins.

Thomas flies a full island survey with his drone and shoots the extent of the Archway colony manually. Around 9.30am the Evohe steams back to Anchorage Bay. Before the grand unloading begins, Ros presents Klemens with a gorgeous chocolate cake.

Around 10.30am Thomas and Dave are the first ones to be dropped with James and Richie in Hut Cove, where a bit of surf makes for a safe yet wet landing.

Elephant seals are spreadeagled on the boulder beach. It takes about 45 minutes to rig the flying fox from the timber A-frame on top of the cliff down to the beach. In the interim, the rest of the team has arrived and the crew of the Evohe start ferrying our gear – most of it stashed in green and yellow buckets – to the landing where Jeff and Robin stand in waist deep water to received the gear. Eventually, the gear is transferred into a net which dangles from a pulley system with the end of the rope being pulled by Dave, Thomas, Jeff and Hannah, while Robin, Bianca and Klemens take care of the loading of the empty net. The transfer is a laborious project, and takes about 3 hours to complete.

By 2.30pm the while team is up at the hut re-hydrating. The mist never really lifts but it is still warm. All gear is finally transferred into the hut, the doors closed and each and every container and bag opened to check for any stow away rodents. The rest of the day is taken up by sorting food into the pantry and getting the sleeping arrangements sorted.

And early dinner around 5.30pm after which Thomas is keen to test of the Starlink system works. Using one of the window blonds as a base the Starlink dish is installed in front of the hut and powered off the generator. At 7pm, broadband internet connection is established converting each of the team members into screen junkies that text or video chat with their families and friends. A long day ends with a round if Scotch to drink on Klemen’s health and a general hut induction for the team.

We spent another night at the anchorage at the northern end of the channel between Proclamation and Spider. Early sun on Spider Island is replaced by misty conditions around 8am. By 9.30am the Evohe raises and raises the anchor. Plan is to fly Molly Cap and North Rock drone missions from the boat. If we pull those two off, we have managed to our bonus missions done as well.

Mist dispersed by a freshening northerly breeze. Molly Cap successfully surveyed despite rising wind. Launch and catch of the unit done by Richie Robinson, as this requires a degree of experience that our drone pilots Thomas and Hannah so far had no chance of making.

After recovery of drone and exchange of battery and SD card we fly the final Bounty Island mission – North Rock. Goes even smoother as wind drops again. All 13 main islands of the Bounty archipelago surveyed by 11am!

Evohe sets course to the Antipodes in calm conditions with hardly an wind. Overcast and warm. Bounties disappear behind the horizon by 1pm. Spotted the first Light-mantled Sooty albatrosses as if our next destination is calling us. ETA Antipodes: some time after midnight.

Again misty conditions but although the roll of the Evohe appears minor we can make out massive swells swoosh around the base of Proclamation Island. First attempt of a group landing around 9.30am as fog starts to lift aborted because of the ‘scary’ lift at the island. Dinghy skipper Murray reckons it can be done but it won’t be easy. Decide to wait another couple of hours.

Next attempt by James, Richie, Jeff and Robin more successful but slow as the dinghy has to time people and gear drop-off between series of huge swells. After dinghy returns to Evohe, Thomas and Dave hop in with Steve Kafka and mate Simon to check out potential landing spots on Depot. Idea is to fly the Centre Group drone missions from there as team will be about 300 m closer to Funnel than on Proclamation. But low tide and exposed bull kelp make that prospect less appealing to Thomas and Dave. Western slopes of Depot appear crowded with albatross, penguins and seals. Penguin and Ranfurly Islands Shelter these slopes from southwest storms. But not enough so to convince the team to jump ashore in the heaving conditions – especially without an emergency gear should they get stuck on the island. Back through the Spider channel and around to the Proclamation landing where a somewhat nerve wrecking landing was achieved.

Up top, Robin and Jeff are finishing up the penguin ground counts resulting in a total of 2,776 Erect-crested penguin nests on Proclamation Island. After discussion with Richie, Thomas decides to fly drone missions to Funnel Island from Proclamation – across a stretch of 1.5 km of open water. Thomas has never flown such far ranging missions so is very apprehensive but gives it a whirl. First attempt gets the drone into the mission area after a 5 minute flight, but mission settings incorrect with drone surveying the island and too great altitude. Drone recalled and returns safely after 15 minutes. The crossings to Funnel cost about 20% of battery power. Between 1 pm and 3pm combined missions of Funnel and Prion Islands, as well as single missions for Corner and Castle Island are successfully completed – much to Thomas’s relief. The Centre Island Group is in the bag!

As light conditions are perfect – flat light with no shadows, decision is made to re-do Depot Island with the drone. By 3pm rest of the team (minus Bianca, Jeff accidentally put on her wet weather gear leaving her only his several sizes smaller stuff) plus Ros and Murray arrive at the top Plateau. Klemens, Jeff and Robin get on with finishing blood sampling while Hannah searches for albatrosses with GLS tags.

Finds two birds of which one disappears while the first unit is recovered. Thomas and Dave install last trail camera facing Depot Island. Thomas then checks all installed cameras for correct settings and downloads first image data sets.

Meanwhile rest of the team pack up and return to Evohe. Richie and James conduct filmed interview with Thomas for Drone Deploy sponsorship as well as a final RNZ interview before the last three on the island make their way down to the landing, removing all guide lines en route. Richie last to hop off the island. Back on the Evohe by 7.30pm.

We started the day adrift some 12 north of Bounties. Misty conditions with poor visibility. Sea continues to be very sloppy with waves coming seemingly from all directions. Started engines around 7 am and arrived back at the Bounties by 8 am. Westerly wind of 10-15 knots and bumpy seas. The islands are invisible in the fog until we are right in between them. Spent the whole morning anchored between Depot and Funnel Island. The Evohe is frequently rocked by violent seas.  Steve and Simon checked out the landings with the dinghy but returned quickly – far too dangerous to land.

Toyed with the idea of flying the Funnel mission from the boat when mist lifted around lunchtime. But launching and catching the unit in these conditions very difficult and dangerous. So decided against it. Found out that DOC has not updated our entry permit so that we are not allowed to deploy a time lapse cameras on Depot – of course. Steamed to the Proclamation anchorage in the afternoon. Massive surges around the island underlined that there was no way we could have landed today. So, a second day of twiddling thumbs.

We sailed all day in circles some 20nm north of Bounties. Seas too rough to stay anywhere near the islands. A lot of time spent in our bunks while the Evohe is hit now and again by big waves that bang loudly against hull. It was the same all through the night so that none of us got much sleep. A pod of common dolphins follows the Evohe for about 30 minutes. No improvement in sea conditions all day but forecast suggests that conditions may improve tomorrow.

We get an early start on a gorgeous day. Up on the top of Proclamation by 8.30am.

Flying drone missions with two units in the air while being filmed with the NZ Geo 360° VR camera doing so. Got Proclamation and Depot done despite a stiff breeze with gusts of up to 20 knots by 10am.

Packed up drones and started different tasks. Klemens, Jeff and Bianca down to the penguin landing to collect blood samples; Robin off to the western end to start penguin ground counts.

Hannah does the same starting in the East for Albatross.

Dave & Thomas; install time lapse camera rock bolts, but adhesive need to set for a couple of hours so both return to top of the islands by lunchtime.

Despite the forecast saying differently, the wind has dropped to about 10 knots from the Southwest. Decide to fly further drone missions. Within 2 hours Penguin, Ruatara and Lion Island are completed – we have the main group in the bag! Between 2pm and 4pm deployed all time lapse cameras. In the process encountered four Albatross carrying GLS loggers.

Blood team managed to get their sample size up to 20 birds. Robin’s penguin count got up to 1500 pairs and Hannah’s Albatross count 350 nests by the time we have to get off the island around 5 pm. Wind has picked up and turned northwest in the afternoon.

Bumpy ride in dinghy to Evohe. Will not be able to spend the night at Bounties. Instead started sailing north by night fall.

We arrive at Bounty Islands around midday after another lumpy day steaming under sail east. Clouds burn away and the islands greet us under gorgeous blue skies.

After Richie any James sent the 360° drone for a spin over the channel between Proclamation and Spider Island, we all gear up for our first landing. Swell at the Proclamation landing site in Bucket Cove reasonably minor. Thomas, James, and Richie go ashore first to rig some guide lines up the steep cliff but by 2pm entire team plus most of the Evohe crew landed on the island.

First impression – a lot more albatross on the ground than during the 2019 visit. In many albatross nests, chicks were hatching so it could be that pairs now together at nest whereas in 2019 we were on the island 3 weeks earlier in the season, i.e. still firmly in egg incubation. Base Plateau on top of island overrun by albatross.

Establish ourselves (after albatrosses had vacated the plateau reluctantly) and start flying first drone missions with two units. Hannah with spotter Bianca covers Proclamation, Thomas and spotter Robin take care of Tunnel, Ranfurly and Spider. Even try to cover Depot, but tablet batteries run out so that only about two thirds of the island completed. Meanwhile Jeff, Dave and Klemens start blood sampling arriving penguins down at the northern main landing. Only four samples collected before we all return to the Evohe around 7.30pm.

After quarantine of our expedition equipment in Invercargill we drove everything up to Dunedin to load it on the Evohe yesterday.

There is no rush to get out of port so Thomas takes the morning to run some final errands before the entire team assembles aboard the Evohe around 11am.

It is a warm, summery day. At 12.30pm we finally launch in the Bounty-Antipodes Islands 2022 Expedition.

We clear Taiaroa Head at 3pm and head east towards the open ocean where some 800km behind the horizon a cluster of exposed Granit islands covered in seabirds awaits our arrival in a couple of day.

Tamatea/Dusky Sound appears to be a transition point for tawaki breeding preferences. In the fjords north of Tamatea, we found the majority of tawaki colonies in forest settings, be it the Fuchsia-fern grove that is Harrison Cove in Piopiotahi/Milford Sound, or the primary forest islands of Patea/Doubtful Sound. Sure, the colonies all look vastly different, but what they all have in common is that they are located in forests.

And with the idea of finding tawaki in forest settings we also arrived in Dusky Sound. However, while we did indeed encounter tawaki colonies on forested islets, we also searched other spots and found at best a handful of nests on islands that theoretically could host hundreds of nests.

A good example was the large, unnamed island in Cormorant Cove in the northern reaches of the fjord. The four of us battled through the undergrowth for what felt like an eternity, we only came up with six nests on the entire 14 hectare island. We spent the night anchored at that island and while having her breakfast muesli Robin spotted a tawaki on the rocks not far from the Tutuko. When she and Myrene checked out that spot a bit later, they discovered a small cave entrance – and a colony of eleven nests in it. Needless to say that from then on, we were on the lookout for sea caves.

Especially towards the tail end of our time in Tamatea, we had our eyes on the shoreline. We spotted many potential caves but hardly ever had the chance to inspect them as landing at those sites was rather difficult if not outright perilous.

In essence, Tamatea/Dusky Sound can be described as a transition zone for tawaki breeding habits. North of Dusky, the majority of the penguins breed in forests. In Dusky, besides forest settings, tawaki colonies can be found in sea caves, like on Rakiura/Stewart Is in the South.

We even found Tamatea tawaki colonies in caves that were located deep in the forest. So it would appear that in southern Fiordland, the penguins rather live underground than under trees. A sign of centuries of hunting pressure by iwi in the southern ranges of the species?

More questions to address in the coming years. Working with tawaki never gets boring.