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It has taken another couple of days sailing to reach the next piece of land. The weather has deteriorated since leaving Macquarie Island. Through the fog and rain, we can only just see something that looks like the tiniest village.  By the time we reach more sheltered waters, it turns out that indeed it is a little hut, although no longer inhabited but used for storage. This weather and abandoned-looking buildings make me realize how remote the area really is; we are about 700 km from the south island of New Zealand.

After a few days at sea, I was more than happy to get off the ship, even if only for a few hours. Getting on land is easy, as there us a little jetty that has a ladder to climb on shore. The first couple of hundred meters are through something that looks like forest, but really is just the same kind of bush as on the previous island. Unlike Enderby, Campbell Island is inhabited year-round. Laundry hanging everywhere makes me wonder how people can expect this to dry in this fog, rain and wind. People living here were not as welcoming as they were on Macquarie Island. As we pass the hut where they live, we are completely ignored. With very few people passing by this island, we were expecting to at least be greeted.

Passing the hut, we see more of the island. The wooden walkway leads me up a hill. Wind is now picking up even more and is becoming a storm. To make matters worse, I start feeling a drizzle. Where this is really uncomfortable for us tourists, the wildlife does not really seem to care. Having said that, the wildlife is limited compared to earlier stops and we only get see the majestic Northern Royal Albatross. I am more than happy to sit in the stormy rain to watch them.

Hidden in the tussock grass is a large albatross. Never have I seen such a large bird, let alone so close by. We have all seen a gull at some point in time, right? Imagine this but then up to 1 meter (3,5ft) long and weighing up to 9kg (approx. 20 lbs). When they spread their wings they are approx. 3 meter (10ft) from wing tip to wing tip. Despite their size and surprisingly fragile appearance, they are incredibly tough and fly enormous distances to gather food. Distances run into thousands of kilometers or miles instead of hundreds.

With 99% of the species living on the Chatham Islands and Fourty-Fours (to come in a future post), I was not expecting to see any of these birds here. After watching the one bird on top of the hill, I turned around to be surprised by another one. Just a few minutes later its mate arrived, followed by a greeting ceremony. When albatross greet, they make a clicking sound with their beak. If it were not for the appalling weather, I would have been able to not only see but also hear the whole greeting. No complaints here though as I was still able to witness this amazing spectacle: The way they move their head and tap their beaks. It is really more like a dance or performance put on by some of the largest and most beautiful flying birds on earth. As if this was not impressive enough, one of the couple got closer and closer. Where it may look like these immense birds have no fear of humans, they do; One wrong move will scare them off.  The bird that was there all along, looked like he or she was about to take off, but he or she was only going to spread its wings.  Due to the enormous size of the wings, it looked like the wind was going to break the bird’s wings. It shows the strength of the birds and that appearance can be deceptive.

It was now two hours later and I was completely wet, cold and ready for a drink. As I got up, the boat was in the distance and looked like a miniature, situated in a nice little bay. After a last look at the impressive scenery, it was time to head back to the ship. So far this was the least impressive island in terms of the amount of animals, but I would not have missed this for the world.

With four more islands to visit, we are now half way through the trip. Next on the list is the Antipodes, but this will take a day or two sailing to reach…