Hello Steemers!!
Have you ever thought about the appeal of being stuck on a isolated, low populated pacific island? Well I recently was...... sort of.
I thought I would share my latest survey trip to Mayor Island or Tuhoa Island in Maori
This is a little known Department of Conservation island situated 37 kilometers off the northern cost of Tauranga in New Zealand’s north Island
The island is a wildlife refuge and half of the island is also a marine reserve. The Island itself is taken care of by the New Zealand government, and is completely predator free. In new Zealand before people arrived, there were no large native terrestrial mammals ( no mice, rats, cats etc – however we do have seals and 2 small native bat species ), so most of our offshore island are sanctuaries for the native animals that once roamed our main islands freely. I traveled here as part of my studies at uni to conduct a number of surveys, we had a tight knit group of about 18 students and 4 tutors. There’s no commercial travel to this island so we were taken over via a privately chartered vessel, the covenanted MV Whai - pronounced ( Wh-iy ).
Rats, Stoats and Possums are the biggest threats to NZ native wildlife and vegetation, so offshore islands help preserve our native animals.
New Zealand Bush Parrot the Kaka (Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis) Shown in great detail. Credit Dennis Morrow ( father-in-law ).
These islands offer little competition from introduced predators, so all the native animals are free to breed and live in relative safety.
How we got there
She ain't pretty, but she's an awesome live-aboard boat capable of huge distances
It took 3.5 solid hours of steaming to get there.
Once landed it was time to unpack and get ready for our 10 day stint without power, electric hot water or flushing toilets. This was a great place to unwind, even though we were here to undertake a tonne of benthic dives (aka sea floor survey dives).
The sheltered bay on the southern side of the island we were to call home for the next 10 days.
We stayed on the southern side of the island where there is an old game fishing lodge where many record fish have been caught ( most of the marine life is now protected around half of the island ). The study is undertaken in conjunction with D.O.C ( department of Conservation ) to compare how the sea life is changing over time, both in and outside of the marine reserve.
This secluded and sheltered bay was idyllic for relaxing between dives.
The indoor/out door flow of the cooking area was awesome - communal cooking at its best.
Most days consisted of early starts and approximately 4 dives in areas where the conditions allowed.
Here's one of our dive teams about to descend into the depths.
Lots of time for underwater selfies!
What we did
We had the task of diving on pre-set gps markers around the island taking measurments of the sea life we found
One of my fellow dedicated survey divers Amy.
The benthic surveys of the sea floor around tuhua included placing 1m x 1m quadratic squares every 5 metres along a 100m gps transect line. We then counted all the species within the quadrats and their densities, this data would then be compared to the same depth/ terrain outside of the marine reserve, and also compared to the previous years surveys.
These Two Spot Demoiselle Fish were around in huge numbers all around the island and very curious of what we were doing
On the fourth day after our morning dives, we decided to put on our hiking boots climb to the summit ( Mayor Island is an extinct volcano, so is reasonable high!!! )
The green of the island is a stark contrast to deep blue of the pacific ocean and pretty remote.
These green lakes are the remnants of the volcanoes turbulent past.
Dinner time on the island was a communal get -to -gether on the beach with a spot of cricket and gum slapping about the days shenanigans.
Most evening were finished with an open fire on the beach.
We were a ruff looking bunch after a while, no shavers or personal hygiene products here!!
Every afternoon after diving, a group of 2 would be on tank duty with the compressors, to fill the tanks for the group would take around 4 hours we had to watch the hoses so as not to suck up the carbon monoxide into the tanks
Compressor station
We had to keep the hose inlets away from the carbon monoxide to prevent contaminating the tanks.
Over the weekend we were there, a couple on their honey moon had chartered a helicopter to drop them off for the day
Tuhua, or Mayor Island has a rugged coastline dominated by steep cliffs and volcanic glass rocks ( you can the rock deposits shimmering in the sun ). There’s no way I’d want to clamber up those rock faces if we had boat trouble
All in all a great trip away with a bunch of good guys and gals - 10 days, 70 dives and A LOT of survey/ data taking AND laughter!
Thanks for reading/upvoting and look forward to more posts to come - I've got a Hero 5 go pro now, so my photos and videos will be better quality next time!