At 2pm on 8 November, the team on board the Braveheart hauled up the anchor and began the journey home. They left Raoul Island with a dolphin escort on the bow.

Unfortunately, all great expeditions come to an end. Today is the start of the end for us. The day we leave Raoul Island and make for Tauranga. The day dawned with blue skies and strong winds from the southwest.

Today the wind and swell intensified – gusting up to 50 knots – and although a few persisted with diving activities today, most took advantage of today as a time to catch up on jobs and reflect. I suspect for

Early this morning the inhabitants of the Braveheart woke to the rocking and rolling of the ocean, and the ship was forced to move from Boat Cove on the south east coast of Raoul Island. A nearby weather system developed

For the past two weeks the Natural History New Zealand crew has been taking every opportunity they get to film humpback whales underwater. Unfortunately the massive animals can be quite skittish when they hear the boat’s engine and divers’ bubbles.

Our blogs over the last couple of weeks have highlighted some of the weird and wonderful fish that have been seen during our surveys. For some of these species, this is the first time ever that they have been recorded

The Braveheart is quiet this evening. It has been a long and busy day, but well worth it. We had favourable sea conditions (mostly), sun shining and whale song and acrobatics to boot. The day was certainly longest for the

The 1st of November marked a few changes for the contingent aboard the Braveheart. It was someone’s wedding anniversary, the start of Mo-vember (see the photo from yesterday), we caught news of a favourable half time score in the World

Sometimes things don’t always turn out as you’d expect. The weather has been better than we could have possibly hoped for. There have been fewer sharks and more whales than in previous years. We’ve found algae where we expected coral.