Back home after an excellent voyage. The weather was on our side, although the seas were quite rough a lot of the time. A lot of people were seasick. Fortunately, that is something that doesn’t affect me.
We slotted in between two storms, the first being strong and producing a large swell with an unusual easterly component. The ship corkscrewed about in messy seas on the long run south to Macquarie Island (‘Macca’ to the station staff), but it was not intolerable by any means.
All landings were on the eastern shore of the islands, so with the unusual swell direction it was a bit hairy getting into and out of the Zodiacs at time and necessitating some atypical rear-first landings. The easterly swell had also played some havoc with the beach on the east side of Macquarie Island, throwing up a lot of kelp.
We achieved all planned excursions and the first and main day on Macca (arguably the highlight destination of the trip) visiting the king penguins came with the bonus of being the best weather day of the whole trip. Fine, sunny and windless - it could not have been more perfect.
Back to the beginning.
The flight to BNE took us just S of KGI and a good view of the Superpit and the town.
Next day BNE-CHC and some good views coming in to CHC late in the day.
I stayed overnight in downtown CHC as I was keen to scope the city post the February 2011 earthquake. A massive reconstruction has seen a transformation to many new, modern-style buildings but there is still a long way to go and many vacant plots of land where buildings once stood.
The cathedral is still a mess. Signs proclaimed that rebuilding will start in 2020. Other old buildings remained propped up.
Then out of CHC to Dunedin (DUD) in a NZ ATR72.
