Antarctic Photos Posted

I have posted 70-80 photos from trip. I used the album feature rather than simply posting them inline in a blog post. I’ve broken them into seven albums based on a category. 
I tried to add some useful comments and descriptions so that you can understand what the image is and get some background information.
When you click on an album or “View Full Album”, by default you will leave this blog and be taken to the Microsoft site hosting the photo albums.  To return to this blog post, you’ll have to navigate using the “go back one page” button.
Alternatively, you can open the album in another tab or window (your options will depend on the browser you are using) and keep this tab/window showing this page.
Once at the Microsoft photo album site, you can view the photos individually or as a slide show.

• Animals that we saw along the way 
  
  

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• Australia images (i.e., pre & post cruise)
  
  

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• Birds (excluding penguins) that we saw 
  
  

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• Cruise related images (mostly of ship life) 
  
  

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• Flowers that we saw
  
  
  

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• Ice - centric photos

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• Penguins that we saw

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We're Back

We arrived today after flying from Brisbane to LAX on Qantas (12 hour flight), then from LAX to Seattle on Alaska Airlines. One of our two checked bags went MIA on the LAX-SEA leg of the trip. Fortunately, Alaska found the bag and dropped it off at the house this evening.

I've copied the 785 pictures from the camera's memory cards to our computers. With digital photographs that only exist electronically, I take great care to protect them. They are stored on three separate devices. That should be safe from virtually all software and hardware problems. I still worry about a fire or break-in, though.

I'll try to get more photos posted this weekend. Until then, here is one photo I took, a pair of cute King Penguins.

"But it's a warm rain"

To ease us back into PNW weather, it is raining today in Brisbane. It isn't a torrential tropical rain but more of a Seattle misting.

The natives seem to have decided you're better off ignoring the rain and wear your normal summer time attire of short sleeves and sun dresses than trying to beat the rain by using rain gear and perspiring underneath it.

We rode the "City Cat", a fast catamaran ferry that runs up and down the Brisbane River. It took us nearly two hours to make the complete loop. After lunch at a downtown food mall, we called it quits for the day because Marcia still feels under the weather on account of her cold.

Brisbane & Expedition Mode

We're in Brisbane now, our final leg before we head back home. The trip has been wonderful but I'd say we're both ready to be home.

Don McIntryre, our friend who was the Antarctic expedition guide for the cruise, would often end his near daily briefings to the ship's guests by telling everyone to be in "expedition mode." For Don, this meant that you had to always be ready for changes in plan based on conditions. In a sense, our entire trip, even the non cruise portion, has been "expedition mode."

The Antarctic cruise was very expensive (although not one we regret).  The airline tickets, on account of the last minute booking during peak season, the most expensive we've ever purchased. To compensate we've economized on our in-country touring by staying in hostels and taking public transit whenever possible.

This means that when we arrive in a city Marcia has to fuss with finding how we get to the city while I retrieve the baggage. Also, because we are hauling gear we needed for the Antarctic cruise, our baggage is more than what it would have been if we were simply traveling in Australia. Hauling our gear from air terminals to bus stands or bus stations to hostels becomes a bit tiring at times. Expedition mode can be fun but it does wear on you after a while.

Lastly, Marcia has come down with a cold. It isn't a bad one but a summer cold (we are in the Southern Hemisphere after all), always drags you down on account of the heat and humidity.

Now to our Brisbane touring. Today was a short day, we walked the mile or so to the botanical gardens (we've seen the gardens in every city we've stayed in). They are right next to the Brisbane River and are bordered by a grove of Mangrove trees.

Tomorrow we're buying a day pass which will allow us to ride the "City Cat" ferry which cruises the river up and down its length, boarding and reboarding as we choose. The river is tortuous through the city so a lot of river covers only a short distance as the crow flies.

Sweet Adelaide

Adelaide turned out to be a delightful city. It is very easy to navigate, well laid out and with a free bus that circles the core.

On Thursday, we did a wine tour to the Barossa Valley, the largest wine region in Australia. We bought a couple of bottles of wine to have over the next several days.

Friday morning we visited the central market, a farmers market that lacks the tourist spin of Seattle's Pike Place Market. Friday afternoon we rode the bus a 100 miles SW of Adelaide to the ferry that took us across to Kangaroo Island. We'll do a tour of the high points of Kangaroo Island today.

Sunday will be a travel day. First back to Adelaide and then a flight to Brisbane, our final stop in Australia.

Snares, Invercargill & a Blur

The Snares Islands were a fabulous collection of birds and seals. We saw Snares Island Penguins (very similar to Rock Hopper penquins), fur seals and more petrels, albatrosses than we can remember.

The next day we landed at Invercargill (Bluff, actually). We rode the bus into town, checked into a hotel and wandered around. As with so many NZ towns, there is a lovely park and botanical garden in which we wandered. We bumped into several other folks from the cruise who also were spending the night in Invercargill.

Tuesday, February 5, was the usual travel blur. First we flew to Christchurch. It was a long wait until our afternoon flight to Melbourne. Clearing customs, immigration and quarantine was a lot easier this time than when we flew in 3-1/2 weeks earlier. We then caught an evening flight to Adelaide.

We were a day earlier into Adelaide than expected so Marcia and the airport travel information people found us a hotel that didn't break our budget too much.

Today we wandered around Adelaide including a visit to the botanical gardens. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant that was an unexpected treasure.

Tomorrow we do a Barossa Valley wine tour. The next day is a two day visit to Kangaroo Island.

Final Full Day of Cruise

We are currently anchored off the east shore of Snares Island, about 150 miles from our disembarkation port of Bluff (Invercargill) New Zealand.

Snares Island is a wild life sanctuary and no landings are allowed. We'll be doing zodiac cruising around The Snares looking at the abundant bird life. The Snares islands got their name from their propensity to "snare" unlucky ships along their shores.

Yesterday, February 2, about 150 miles south, we visited Auckland and Enderby Island. The weather was stunning! Mostly sunny with just enough clouds to add interest to the photos.

In the morning guests had a choice of three trips. We chose the visit to a coastal watch station established in World War II. Because Auckland Island has a very protected anchorage, the watch station was intended to catch any enemy ships that might have been using the anchorage as a shelter or forward base. The forest through which we walked was very different from those we are familiar with in the Pacific Northwest. The Rata tree was the predominant tree canopy in the forest.

The afternoon was a zodiac cruise along Sandy Bay. A yellow-eyed penguin "posed" for us on a low rocky cliff as we motored by. On the beach were hundreds of sea lions soaking up the sun shine with which we were blessed.

Further along, we passed below the nests of the resident commorants (aka "shags"). Their body shapes were very similar to the commorants we see in Seattle but their colors were a striking pattern of black and white rather than the solid black that we have at home.

Tonight we'll repack all our gear in preparation of disembarking in New Zealand tomorrow morning. We'll spend one night in Invercargill than fly back to Australia via Christchurch.

MacQuarie Island Recap

We are on the move again heading north to Auckland Island. The weather is sunny and, for 50 degrees south latitude, warm. Lunch was served on the aft deck. Albatrosses and other birds ride the turbulent air behind the ship, first swooping low over the water than riding the wind above the ship.

The MacQuarie Island visit yesterday was outstanding. We made two landings, one at the far northeast corner of the island, near the permanent base and than later in the afternoon about 4 or 5 miles south of their but still on the east shore.

The elephant seals were impressive. The adults weigh 3 to 4 tons and are well over ten feet long. They reminded me of Jawa the Hut from Star wars, massive blobs that spend most of the time lying on the beach or in the grasses next to the beach. They are pretty benign and you often walk within 10 feet of them.

The penguin populations were great. Kings, Gentoos and Royals were abundant. A population of Rock Hoppers were visible on the hill side as we cruised in the Zodiac's back to the Orion.

The King penguins were especially cute. They are very curious and would walk to within a few feet of you regularly. We were able to take some wonderful close-ups of the King penguins. Their colors are striking so they make great photographic subjects.

The bird life at Auckland island should be equally prolific so we look forward to an enjoyable visit there tomorrow.

Southern Ocean Experience

We are still about 100 miles from MacQuarie Island. Yesterday we got a taste of what the Southern Ocean (the waters that surround the Antarctic continent) can dish out. The "furious fifties" is a term often applied to that region of the Southern Ocean in from 50 to 60 degrees south latitude.

In the early morning of Tuesday, January 29th, a steep pressure gradient passed overhead. The winds popped up to 60-70 knots with occasional gusts over 80 knots. The seas increased to 10-15 meters of steep and chaotic waves.

Most people stayed in their cabins while the worst conditions passed by. Breakfast, for those interested in one, was an egg & bacon sandwich delivered to your cabin by a crew member. Lunch was also prepared sandwiches from galley. By dinner time, the staff gamely opened the main dining room for those who cared to navigate the passageways.

In order to provide the most comfortable conditions, Orion's captain slowed the boat down to 3-5 knots and changed the course to keep our nose to the wind. Unfortunately, this direction was not the one that would take us to MacQuarie Island.

By this morning, conditions improved sufficiently that the captain put us back on course for MacQuarie Island. We should arrive there this evening and do our landings on this World Heritage designated wildlife preserve tomorrow morning.

Cruising North

Our visit to the French Antarctic base at Dumont D'Urville (DDU) on the 25th was a real treat. The base is set amongst several rocky islands directly offshore from the continent. Because of the relatively shallow waters (100' to 200'), many ice bergs ground themselves offshore. The fanciful shapes of the grounded bergs and the free floating ones enhance the beauty of the setting.

The ship's company was divided into five different groups and each group did both a Zodiac cruise among the islands and walking tour of the French base. The metal walkways at the station are elevated above the Adelie penguin rookeries. The penguins seem to ignore us as we walk above their heads by just a few feet. Additionally, the walkways go past snow, storm and cape petrel nests.

The next day, January 26th, we cruised past the ice tongue of the Merz Glacier. The glacier projects about 30 miles into the ocean from the continents coast. The glacier stands over a hundred feet high above the water which means another 700' to 800' of the glacier is below the water line since the glacier is floating. Towards the end of the ice tongue, the stresses of wind and current cause the glacier to birth ice bergs into the ocean.

Besides the glacier viewing, the ship celebrated Australia Day on the 26th. Most of the ship's guests are Australian. The few non-Australians were granted leave to be Australians for the day in a "solemn" ceremony involving sun screen dabbed on the nose, eating lemingtons and singing the Australian anthem.

Yesterday, January 27th, was a slow day for everyone as we cruised north. The expedition staff gave several lectures on various Antarctic topics during the day.

Currently, Monday, January 28th, the Orion is cruising North towards its next destination, Macquirie Island, an Australian sub-Antarctic Island. We should reach Macquirie sometime tomorrow.

Antarctica Report

Internet connectivity has been spotty on account of our far southern latitude. We are currently on the fourth day of our time in Antarctica.

The voyage down was uneventful. The 3-5 meter swells experienced at the first were the largest. Most of the time the swells were in the 1-3 meter range and the wind chop was moderate. Lots of blue sky, too boot.

Our first day at the continent was at Port Martin. There the katabatic winds were fierce (40-50 knots) so we were unable to launch the zodiacs for a cruise along the ice fronts.

The second day was to Cape Dennison where Mawson had his hut. Conditions were excellent with only light winds. The zodiacs shuttled everyone to shore where we were able to wander amongs the Adelie penguin rookeries. It was a picture perfect day.

On the third day we moved to Point St. Jules. In the morning we did a zodiac cruise of the area but then the zodiacs were recalled on account of a small ice berg drifting toward the Orion. The Orion hoisted its anchor and moved out of the way to let that one and several more pass by. Fortunately, this occured during lunch.

After lunch, the Orion reanchored and the zodiacs were launched for a landing. The expedition crew does a great job of preparing the landing areas so getting a shore is usually not a lot of fuss despite the icy shores.

The scenery is truly fabulous. Having seen glaciers on mountains around the world, the glaciers on Antarctica are in a class by themselves. It is difficult to grasp the concept that the ice sheet you see in front of you extends for 1400 miles to the South Pole at an average depth of nearly 5000 feet thick.

Today we hope to make a landing at the French Antarctic base at Dumont D'Urville (DDU for short). The movie "March of the Penguins" was filmed at an Emperor Penguin colony near here. With the exception of one lone Emperor all we have seen so far are thousands and thousands of Adelie Penguins.

Onboard and Heading South

On the afternoon of Thursday, January 17th we boarded the Orion. It is a lovely vessel, considerably smaller than the cruise ship we were on last Summer when we to the Norway Coast. There are 90 or so passengers on the Orion versus 1300+ passengers on the Holland America cruise ship in Norway.

We had a bit of confusion when we first boarded because  we were shifted to a different cabin but it was sorted out before we left.

It is 1400+ nautical miles to Commonwealth Bay on the Antarctic coast. The Orion travels between 11 and 13 knots depending on sea conditions. With 900 miles to go we should be there in 3+ days.

As I write this, 10 AM Saturday, January 19th , we're nearing 51 degrees South latitude. We are driving pretty much straight south so our current longitude of 147 degrees East will remain the same.

The seas aren't too bad. There isn't a lot of wind chop but the swells are in the 3-5 meter range. Hopefully it won't get a whole lot worse.

A Busy Time in Tasmania

Marcia scheduled our time in Hobart wonderfully. We've been busy every day since we arrived.

Saturday - This was a recovery day but since there is only 5 hours difference between Seattle and Hobart (ignoring the date difference), our biological clocks reset pretty quickly. We walked to the downtown (about 3 km) then took the bus back. Hobart is the second oldest city in Australia after Sydney.

Sunday - We took a tour to Port Arthur (we used Bottom Bits Tours), the prison for those convicts sent to Tasmania. It operated for about 50 years in the 19th century. Convicts were a key element in the settlement of Tasmania and Australia.

Monday - Freycinet Peninsula and Wineglass Bay. We took another tour up the east coast to a lovely beach area. The weather in Tasmania primarily comes from the west (Indian Ocean) so the east shore is the dry side of things. Lovely beaches and coastal features. There was a human habituated wallaby at a look out. Marcia was able to give a drink from her water bottle.

Tuesday - Into the mountains this time with a tour to Mt Wellington (right above Hobart) and Mount Field, a national park. On the way back we visited a wildlife park that had Tasmanian Devils and wombats.

Wednesday - We were on our own today. We walked over to the Royal Botanical Gardens which were really lovely. From there we continued down town and had lunch at a seafood restaurant that specializes in the local seafood. They serve the local oysters raw so Marcia says she wants to have lunch there tomorrow as well.

We board the Orion tomorrow and are looking forward to the next leg of our journey.

Hobart Tasmania

Despite 30+ hours of continuous traveling spread across 4 flights, we made it to Hobart in pretty good shape.

When we arrived, it was extremely windy and hot (upper 80's). Today, however is quite pleasant. We spent the morning doing some grocery shopping and walking through a nearby park.  This afternoon we'll walk down to the city center and scope things out there.

Tomorrow (Sunday) through Tuesday, Marcia has lined up trips to various spots around the island. These are mostly 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM trips so we'll be pretty busy.

Wednesday is a recovery day and, probably, laundry. Thursday we board the MV Orion for the cruise portion of the trip.

Off to Antarctica

While checking on the construction of our new boat at the Seahorse Marine boatyard this last fall, we spent a considerable time with Margie & Don McIntyre who are also having a boat built there. The McIntyre's are Antarctic guides for a cruise line based out of Australia. We mentioned our long held interest in visiting Antarctica and they responded that last minute opportunities occasionally come up.

In early December, we got a call from Don saying that if we were interested, there were some vacancies on a sailing in the middle of January. After mulling it over for a half hour or so, we called him back and said we're in.

The cruise embarks from Hobart, Australia on January 17 and disembarks at Bluff (Invercargill), New Zealand on February 4. Since it is both expensive in money and time to get to Australia, we decided to take time on both the beginning and end of the trip for a little touristing. We leave Seattle on Wednesday, January 9 and return five weeks later on Wednesday, February 13.

Below is our trip schedule with links for maps (Google Earth) or weather (Weather Underground) if available. A large scale map of Antarctica and the various territorial claims can be found here. Where we will be traveling is the small section in the lower right of the map between Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand.

Date	Location	Links
1/9-1/11	Many flights: Seattle to LA, LA to Melbourne (via Auckland), Melbourne to Hobart
1/11-1/17	Touristing in Hobart Tasmania. We'll be staying at the Hostel International facility in Hobart (lodging)	Map Weather
1/17	Embark from Hobart on the MV Orion	MV Orion
1/18-1/22	Cruising to Antarctica. It will take 5+ days to make the 1400+ nautical mile crossing to Antarctica.
1/23-1/26	We'll be cruising along the Antarctic coast in the Commonwealth Bay region. This is near both the French and Australian Antarctic research bases. It is also very near the magnetic South Pole. We hope to visit the hut left by Douglas Mawson, the earliest Australian Antarctic explorer (Mawson's Hut).	Map Weather
1/27-1/29	Start heading back north
1/30-1/31	Visit the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. We hope to see four kinds of penguins here, King, Royal, Gentoo and Rockhopper (penguins).	Map Weather
2/1	Cruising north
2/2	We visit Auckland and Enderby Islands. These are New Zealand conservation areas. We may see Yellow Eye penguins, an albatross colony and a Hooker Sea Lion colony.	Weather Description
2/3	Our last visit will be to Snares Island. Lots of bird life here including the Snares Crested penguin.	Map
2/4	Disembark in at Bluff, New Zealand, the port for Invercargill. We'll probably spend the night here.	Map Weather
2/5-2/9	We'll work our way back to Adelaide, Australia (description). Here will spend several days visiting local sites (Kangaroo Island, Barossa Valley).	Map Weather
2/10-2/12	Our last stop before heading home will be Brisbane (description).	Map Weather
2/13	Retrace our steps home. Brisbane to LAX, LAX to Seattle.