A PIG OF A JOB
Never go back. That’s what they say about returning to a much-loved spot. But I went back to a cliff overlooking the Southern Ocean on the main island of the Auckland Islands group in the subantarctic. I first voyaged to Maukahuka/Auckland Islands in January 1995, with a Natural History New Zealand film crew. It was an unusually calm, fine day. You need calm sea conditions to be able to land on the shore of Carnley Harbour, judging the swell carefully to step up from the Zodiac to kelp-covered rock.
After a steep bush-bash through scrub to the top of the western cliffs, we took a deep breath. There they were: hundreds upon thousands of white-capped albatross – the sides of the cliffs like an amphitheatre smothered in the white mushroom-like heads of nesting birds, and the blue sky almost lost to the chaos of black and white wings soaring, careering between nest, sky and the deep, blue sea.
It was so beautiful, I recall fighting back tears. So, when I was offered the chance to return this summer, 27 years later, I grabbed it. Fortunately, conditions were similarly fine. A rarity. The narrow Victoria Passage that divides the main Auckland Island from the southern Adams Island was even navigable by Zodiac. Again, almost unheard of.
