February 7 Invercargill

And we were away, scudding through the air in a prop plane bound for Invercargill where we would meet up with the rest of the passengers and crew of this exciting expedition. We flew over braided rivers of the Canterbury plains, formed by glacial outwash gravels during ice ages.

 And yes we were in a prop plane - you know you’re flying!

I was of course interested in the vegetation of New Zealand's Subantarctic Islands and contacted the NZ Department of Conservation to find out where I could get a decent reference book.  They promised to get one to me! And lo and behold my book about the flora of these islands was waiting for me when we checked in at the hotel yesterday. I became quite excited flicking through the pages at strange otherworldly plants of the Subantarctic Islands.

Glorious colours of New Zealand Flax

A wonderful refernece book on the flora of the Subantactic Islands

Many of you know that I tend to be a wee bit focussed, but it catches me a little by surprise when people seem to know nothing at all about Antarctica, particular southerners. The young NZ woman sitting next to me on the plane on our flight to New Zealand asked what the accommodation options were like in Antarctica! Well .... apart from scientific research stations, there aren’t any! There are no permanent residents in Antarctica, neither has there ever been any indigenous people: no native Antarcticans. Since the land mass over the South Pole, Gondwana, spilt up, there have been no land bridges to Antarctica for over 35 million years and that’s before humans evolved, according to the fossil records at least! 

She was puzzled about what we might do on such a trip .... hmm? What could I say to her that would make any real sense to her? Cruising around in zodiacs, landing on totally deserted, desolate beaches, visiting the most southern sea in the world, following whales .....

We will be visiting a few of the Subantarctic Islands, including Macquarie Island, on our way to and from the Ross sea. We have many days at sea to the Antarctic and between islands, with one stretch of 5 days - it’s a looong way, almost 3000 Km, from Bluff NZ to the entrance to the Ross Sea, Cape Adare.