Page 32 - 2008 NZ SUB ANTARCTIC ISLANDS - SMARTPHONE

The finale to our visit “to” but not “on” this special island was as exciting and moving as the day
of coastal explorations had proved to be. Every night while they are on Snare’s Island for
breeding, the sooty shearwaters settle on the ocean surface about a mile from shore. We could
watch them as they flew
in and joined the ever-
increasing throng of
rafting birds. The birds
were so numerous that
they created highly
visible black lines on
the horizon! When
something spooked
them and they all lifted
off into the sky, the
black cloud they created
was so dense we could
not see blue sky beyond
them. It seemed like we
were seeing the mass
exodus of millions of
bats from Carlsbad
Caverns every evening or like seeing the “great migration” of wildebeest and zebra on the
Serengeti Plain. The participating animals are uncountable! We motored out beyond where the
Clipper Odyssey was anchored in order to be among the birds and it was a magnificent and awe-
inspiring experience. The mundane explanation for this extraordinary show is self-defense.
When flying back to shore in such huge numbers, the individual birds are protected from
predatory birds like skua and giant petrel. The mass of birds also makes it more difficult for a
predator to follow an individual back to its nest thus exposing eggs or chicks. Whatever the
logical explanation, the encounter for us could not have been more thrilling.

What a perfect ending to our visit to Snare’s Island!

Chapter 13. Stewart Island

This island is the third largest of New Zealand, after the North and South Islands. It is home to
about 400 hardy people year around but is a vacation destination for many mainlanders. After all,
80% of the island’s 674 square miles is set aside as Rakiura National Park. The highest point on
the island is Mount Anglem at 3210 ft. So the hiking opportunities here are wonderfully varied
and can be as rugged as bushwhacking up mountainsides and as gentle as following the beaches
on the coast. Fishing is the main industry on the island and the populace is as independent as
fisherfolk usually are. The island generates its own electricity via a diesel generator and it is
serviced by regular flights from Invercargill and Bluff on the South Island and there is regular
ferry service between Bluff and Oban, the capital city of Stewart Island.

Remember from the Maori story about the creation of New Zealand that Stewart Island is the
anchor stone for Maui’s canoe (South Island) from which he and his brothers fetched up their
“great fish” (North Island)? There is an interesting phenomenon present on Stewart that results
from an anomaly in the magnetic latitude contours that allows frequent observation from this
northern position (relative to the Antarctica) of the Aurora Australis! Of course, we were not on

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