Stewart Island 2006
Photos from my recent trip
Just a few photos (you can click on each photo to make them larger) and notes from a recent paua dive survey work trip that we have just returned from. Fortunately for me we have another couple of trips scheduled for January and February, so there could be more to come.
Stewart Island Ho: Here we are just looking at the coastal margin. There is a fair amount of land and mountains (out of sight) to the right of this photo.
The water was cool (about 12 C) but clear
So no excuses, the poor old pirate has to get into the water (kicking and screaming) to do some paua surveys .... sometimes I do have a tough job.
We are working from and staying on Bob Hawkless' boat, the MANA. Bob is MANA charters Mana Charters.com . Bob really looked after us and still managed to retain his sense of humour as we deliberated as to whether or not it was safe to dive and if we were close enough to every one of the 30 dive sites we completed this trip. Having a local skipper with intimate knowledge of the area and weather conditions greatly facilitates our work in these remote places.
The weather was mostly pretty good, but it was a bit cold for my thin blood. 12 C water temperature and 12 C air temperature in the middle of November! With a herd of ice bergs (the first ones in over 70 years) lucking only about 100 km to the south and east of us, I could swear that the air was straight off ice.
The weather wasn't always perfect:
But a little rain isn't all bad, it made for some cool waterfalls
On the first day we came across two white tail deer feeding on the open grassy slope in the middle of this photo. The deer are actually there, but don't show up too well in the photo. We stalked the deer with our 45 ft launch (as is our custom) but nobody took a shot and it wasn't my place to 'have a go' myself as I was standing around in a dripping wet wetsuit. We figured we would get the next ones, I figured we were just soft old farts and clearly not hungry enough for 'Rudolph' at the christmas dinner table ... tut, tut, tut
Other sea monsters we saw included a fur seal lolling around sunning himself, clearly he wasn't too perturbed by our presence. Definately our NZ fur seals are less wary than North American seals. Maybe the lack of Polar bears and Inuit has put our seals at ease.
Plus there were the proverbial mollymorks/albatrosses (they got a formal upgrade to albatross status recently, but they are still mollymorks to me)
My go anywhere Tom Yost designed searaider was assembled and re-launched with suitable aplomp (as it hit the water) and ceremony. Unfortunately I was too cold and tired ( from diving most days) to use it except for one fine evening spent exploring Port Adventure and visiting some hunters' huts there
My Yost Searaider hit the water with a 'plomp' as I threw it over the side of the boat
And it was good to be out on the water once more
Below: Sneaking through Macrocystis kelp trying to get a close up photo of a 'Shag' = New Zealand for Cormorant
After a lifetime of 'irresponsible rebel' paddling, I finally got around to buying a handheld VHF radio. Being a pirate at heart, I subscribe to a code of strict radio silence at all times and if you are to hear from me, it can only mean trouble. So, here I am, combat field trialing my new VHF. I was reporting in the plague of rats on my mobile VHF station 'Pirate Pete' ZMS7910
see what I mean when I said: "if you hear from me, it will only mean trouble" [see below under "who needs bears when we got rrrr-rats"].
Here is one of the huts (number 24 on Mana Charters link, above) and its interior. A hut like this on Stewart Island is a very warm, dry, comfortable and free from sandfly option for surviving the rigours of outdoor Stewart Island (Sandflies = pesky little 'black fly' beasties that swarm in their millions and have a hankering for human blood. Their little blood sucking proboscis are designed for punching through to the sap veins in leaves and they hurt as well as annoy - otherwise it really would be paradise).
Both huts were furbished with the proverbial 'out houses' / long drop toilet facilities. One was more in the traditional rustic vein, while the second hut sported the latest space age version - it might have even been the very latest 'composting' variety (not to say that your more traditional long drop doesn't compost)
Who Needs Bears when we got RRRRR- RATS!!!!
The second hut (hut number 23 on Mana Charters link, above) we visited had a colony (probably only a family of 2) of rats that had taken up residency and from the look of things had been partying every night like teenagers. The mess was unbelievable. I guess like us, the rats had figured that the hut was a comfortable, warm and dry place to hang out.
RAT-O-STROPHE
The sign on the door ["Please remove rubbish. Litter is unattractive, harmful to wildlife, and can increase vermin and disease. Please carry out what you carry in"] was .... well prophetic. Vermin - nasty, nasty little devils!
And a bunch of pretty pictures of paradise