Antarctic Trip '08-'09

Collages of images (in Progress)

Most of the images are about 2MB - your browser will probably open them in a small version,
a quick click on the collage should put you in expanded view and you can scroll around for a look.
Not counting the Google images and the Sea Shepard - all images copyright ted Brattstrom 2009

Includes such wonderful places as:

Gentoo adult with hungry chick  --  Ted with Royals      (both at Macquarie)
Royal shaking -- Royal walking to the sea -- Kings         (all at Macquarie)
Albinistic Royal -- Adelie -- Emperor                               (Macquarie - Cape Denison - Ice Pack)
Emperor -- Rockhopppers                                                (Ice Pack - Auckland Island)
Yellow Eyed Penguin - penguin signs                              (near Moeraki - Oamaru)

Our ship - the "Professor Khromov" -- Loading up / aka "The Spirit of Enderby"
Departing Bluff -- At sea
Clouds and sun -- Albatross!
Ted at Macquarie (with travel penguin and elephant seal in background)

Google Maps - ANARE Base
Google Maps - Sandy Bay
Google Maps - Lusitania Bay

Macca 1 L to R / Top to Bottom     (Most on the ANARE Base Google Maps link)
Elephant seal reception committee / moulting -- a view with ellies
Wireless Hill, ANARE station, Gentoos and Elephant Seals
Zen Penguins!!  -- more zen Penguins
The living areas of the ANARE station -- Ham radio hut on the hill, and nearby beach
West side beach with tourists, penguins, seals and kelp

Macca 2  L to R / Top to Bottom     (Most on the Sandy Bay Google Maps link)
King Penguin Chick - King Penguins
More King Penguins - Southern Giant Petrel (Stinker)
Ellies having a conversation, Royals behind - Jaap taking pictures
Rebecca and a Royal - Royal - Kings taking a walk
Royals on the beach - Pillow Lavas (the real reason Macquarie is a WHA)
    (all but the GP and Pillow Lavas are at Sandy Bay - south of the ANARE station on the east coast)

Macca 3  L to R / Top to Bottom       (Most on the Sandy Bay Google Maps link)
Royals in the surf
Kings on walkabout - an inquisitive weaner
Romantic Royals - Kelp
Getting ready to leave* / emergency kit and weaners - zodiacs to the ship
Leaving Macquarie / SE tip of the island

*Ian(I think), Alison (Both from Macquarie), Nathan R, (?), Stu. Ulrich, Nathan G

Sandy Bay Panorama

Cloudscape - Mark of the Penguin
Nathan and the Line Crossing Invocation - Adelies on a flow
Initiates
Berg
Welcome to the Ice - Cape Denison on the left, carry on over the glacier and you're at the Pole (eventually

Google Maps - Cape Denison

Cape Denison1   L to R / Top to Bottom
Cape Denison Panorama - looking west from Boat Harbor ice
Adelie on a mission - Adelie talking to eggs
Adelie in ice - Mawson's Hut and our landing area
Lots more Adelies - walking / standing / hanging out

CapeDenison QuicktimeVR (6MB) Looking west from the "boat harbour"- Wedell seals, Adelie Penguins, tourists, zodiac, Mawson's Hut, Granholm hut (look carefully, it is camoflaged), cross.

Commonwealth Bay QuicktimeVR (2MB) Looking North from near the area where the glacier turns to a more local snow. Antarctic Coastline, Khromov, ridges, Granholm Hut (camoflage, look for the shadow), Boat Harbor,  Mawson's Hut, Azimuth Hut, Islands, Lake (snoozing penguins), Apple Hut, Sorenson Hut, more bare rock with penguins, Antarctic coastline.

Sorenson Hut QuicktimeVR    (2MB) a view mostly east in the next "valley" over from Mawson's Hut. The Apple Hut and Sorenson hut in the center, a Wilson's Storm Petrel flying through, Penguin colony to the left and the glacier that comes down to the area to the right.

Cape Denison 2  L to R / Top to Bottom
Wedell Seal - Wedell Seals pt. 2
Lichen and rock (granite) - Lichen etc and rock
Emerging rocks - Skua up at the cross
Leaving Boat Harbor - An assortment of rocks, brought by the glacier

Mawson 1  L to R / Top to Bottom
Azimuth hut in foreground, Mawson's hut in background
Azimuth hut - inside / outside
Waiting to go in Mawson's Hut - 1 supervisor and 3 visitors at a time - 2nd door
Mawson's Room - Darkroom
Books - Flour and condiments - outside view (roof entrance!) - Bunks - Acetylene generator

Port Martin     L to R / Top to Bottom

Adelie penguins in Port Martin base
The snow/ice landing area - hiding out of the wind in the rocks
misc people and penguins
Penguin Landing area with continental glacier behind - people watching penguins

IceIce      L to R / Top to Bottom
Wall of Ice tongue: Mertz Glacier
Berg north of Port Martin - Caves in Mertz
Berg north of Port Martin - Jaap and Ulrich enjoying sun and fairly calm seas
Pack Ice  / ship in Pack Ice / Pancake ice
Edge of the Pack Ice (check out the bird - probably Wilson's Storm Petrel)

OK, it wasn't an Attack - Quite
I was up late reading, and around 1:30 am, I decide it was time to finally go to bed - but first a visit across the hall - as I stood up, I saw a Helicopter fly by the porthole... now, put this in perspective, we are amongst a few bergs, "alone" in the southern ocean, 100+ miles from the coast and the closest known helicopter, unloading the Astrolabe at DDU....
So - up to the bridge to find out what was going on.
The helicopter had made 3 circuits of the ship -   quite low - and flown off... Some people were awake and on deck and took pictures... and shared them on the bridge. Amazingly, a day or so before, I had noticed one of the other people onboard had a SeaShepherd.org backpack - so I recognized the logo.
Nathan got to the bridge and called to the "unidentified craft"... which we could now see paralleling us and behind.... they did not respond. (and didn't have their transponder on)
After a while, He called again, identifying them as SeaShepherd and us as Spirit of Enderby, and they came back - with some story about being trapped behind pack ice and hoping we might be the Astrolabe that they could follow out.... yeah right... like the helicopter couldn't see what we were.
They flew back - and took some pictures - so did we :-)
As they got closer, it was clear they were ready to board - their zodiac was hanging from the winch, some of the crew were dressed in apppropriate gear... and they didn't stand down from that pose for a long time...
Well, we weren't boarded... and we went off to look at some lunge feeding minkes that their helicopter had been off looking at, and we decided we could too...
I can't remember who took each of these images - one person did the helicopter, another the ship.

Campbell Island    L to R / Top to Bottom
Wharf and Met station Hostel from Ship
Welcome sign / begin the hike to Col-Lyall saddle
The boardwalk / In the flowering MegaHerb field (see the flora section below)
Southern Royal Albatross / The ship
Zodiax ride and "the worlds loneliest tree" - a solo, very trimmed, Spruce! (you wouldn't think that was a spruce!)
Hitchhiking Campbell pipit (for splitters) - it hitched a ride to Auckland Island -  and Campbell Shag

Campbell Island Met station panorama

Google Maps - Auckland Island / Lake Hinemoa
Google Maps - Enderby Island

Auckland Islands from the NASA Shuttle - Enderby is the one in the top right

Auckland Island   L to R / Top to Bottom
Out for a Zodiac trip - Windblown trees on basalt
Kelp and surging coastline - Rockhopper Penguins
The walk to Lake Hinemoa - A gentleman who thought the trail was his
Lake Hinemoa - "Expeditioners" enjoying the view
Back to the ship - Albatross (Mollymawk) actually off Campbell Island enroute to Auckland

Enderby Island Panorama
taken from the ship - showing the bay, research station, sea lion beach

Enderby 1    L to R / Top to Bottom
Landing  on the beach at Enderby - Sign (we had permits!)
Walk across the island (S to N) looking back at the bay and ship - up into the forest
A pair of Royal Albatross
Boardwalk across the Bulbinella field - Northern cliffs

Enderby 2    L to R / Top to Bottom
Castle Derry Reef - Hooker's Sea lion on the grass - Castle Derry Reef in the back
The beack of sea lions - Beachmaster, harem and pups
Expeditioners admiring the sea lions - Castaway hut (supplies for shipwrecked sailors were stored here)

Look below for the Flora of the Auckland Islands

MegaHerbs of Campbell Island    L to R / Top to Bottom
Oh dear, now I have to remember the names of these...
OK, I "cheated" - I looked them up in "Subantarctic New Zealand - A Rare Heritage"
Pleurophyllum criniferum - and closeup
Pleurophyllum speciosum - Campbell Island Daisy
overall, closeup of flowers, mist on the hairs on the leaves
Walking in the Megaherb "garden" in the misty/windy Col-Lyall saddle
The yellow is Bulbinella rossii, the pink is Anisotome latifolia


Flowers on Auckland Islands    L to R / Top to Bottom

All but the bottom left are on Enderby, the bottom left is from the shores of Lake Hinemoa on Auckland
Bulbinella rossii - in a number of ages - top right is going to seed
Anisotome latifolia surrounded by old Bulbinella
some serendipitous inverts - 1st on Auckland, second on Enderby
Enderby Gentian Gentianella concinna
A daisy looking thing from Lake Hinemoa, and .... ooops need to look this one up

looks like I missed putting in a Stilbocarpa polaris... hmmm, have to look through the images. OK, here it is:

Flowers on Auckland Islands 2    L to R / Top to Bottom
Stilbocarpa polaris - Overall image
Leaf with bird vomit (stones, fish bones, squid beak) - close-up of flowers
New Rata tips (the main forest tree of the Auckland  Islands) - It must must be a gentian, but I can't tell if it's the Enderby one or G. antarctica

All but the last were taken on Enderby - the last was at Lake Hinemoa again...

The Snares - QuicktimeVR (1MB)

Penguin Slope - The classic place for viewing Snares Crested Penguins - those dots on the slope are the penguins - really!

Daption Rocks  - lots of sooty shearwaters flying - this is the northernmost end of the Snares

Ted in the South     L to R / Top to Bottom
You know how you rarely get pictures of yourself... well, the glories of digital cameras and e-mail means that people can send you stuff... So, this colllage is from pictures taken by other people - Jaap, Robyn, Shirley and.... oops - who took the picture of the kings and I?
Me with Royals - Sandy Bay, Macquarie // The Kings and I - Macquarie by the base
Happy outside Mawson's Hut!
Travel Penguin and Me - christmas eve festivities  // Walking at Cape Denison
Someplace Chilly - maybe at the bow of the ship  //  Sunny day returning to Bluff