Bells Ravine, Raoul Island
Macauley Island
Looking towards Fishing Rock, Raoul Island
While most eyes on the boat will be on things that live in the sea, we haven’t forgotten that we are visiting a chain of islands and we have two land experts along with us who we’ll be trying to get ashore on each one.
Peter de Lange from the Department of Conservation is an expert in terrestrial (land) plants, especially rare ones, and his colleague Warren Chinn is an expert in land invertebrates (animals without backbones, such as insects and spiders).
Their ‘must have’ items include vinegar, folded paper packets and rock chisels – read on to find out more!
Now when I say ‘islands’ what I mean is everything from 3000 hectare Raoul Island, to tiny islets and rock stacks. There are no easy landing sites, so they have resigned themselves to getting wet every time they go ashore.
Weather permitting they’ll be dropped ashore by a zodiac (an inflatable with a rigid hull) wearing a wetsuit, with all their equipment packed in waterproof barrels, tied together so they can be easily grabbed and hauled ashore. The wetsuit gives them extra padding in case things go wrong.
Once on the island Peter and Warren will change into dry clothes – a different set for each island, so they don’t risk moving seeds, soil and insects between islands.
Just in case the weather blows up rough and the crew can’t get them off they will always take the emergency barrel, which is packed with spare clothing, food, water, tent, and other emergency supplies.
Peter says it’s hard to plan in advance for places you’ve never been to – and some of these islands are very challenging. They would like to camp on Curtis, for example, but the island is an active volcano, and people have suffered burns in the past. The island is surrounded by cliffs except on the northern side where the crater wall has collapsed. The intrepid pair will be landed here and use climbing poles to mark out a safe route around the crater.
Apart from their emergency supplies the guys will need a whole lot of equipment to carefully collect and look after the specimens and I’ve asked them to share the makings of their kit bag with me – including a basic recipe used to stop plant tissues rotting. I’ll share that with you in my next post.
