Auckland Islands

Mohuperudu.

And there's a little rail on the Auckland Islands called the Auckland Island Rail.

And it hadn't been seen since the 60s.

And before that, it hadn't been seen for about 100 years.

And we're all wondering whether it was still there and how many of them were there.

So Lou Sanson, who was at that time, he worked for DOC in Southland.

Lou organized a trip to the Auckland Islands and we were going to look for this rail.

And so Kath and I got dragged along as the rail experts.

So to return them to that ancestral place, would be a natural and a great outcome.

People have also talked about the Auckland Islands as a possible very large, spacious habitat for the burgeoning Kakapo population.

So all good news.

And hats off to those Kakapo recovery people who are so dedicated with their work.

No, no, but that's a good one.

Um, and then last question, you're stranded on the Auckland Islands, on the way down to bloody Antarctica actually.

Yes.

Uh, in particular Disappointment Island, so the five things that you're taking to avoid being disappointed while you're stranded.

There's some amazing stories of, of, of castaways and shipwrecks on the sub-Antarctic islands-

Yeah

... including, uh, the Auckland Islands and Enderby Island.

Island.I mean, you've absolutely just blown my mind

It's so good.

Um, now I was looking forward to asking you this one, 'cause I'm like, "Where's he gonna go with this as, as someone that's, you know, would s- survive days out there?" You're stranded on the Auckland Islands, in particular Disappointment Island.

What are the five things you take? Um, like, obviously you're stranded for we don't know how much time, but what are the things you're taking to avoid being disappointed on Disappointment Island?

So firstly, it's probably my happy place.

Yeah

... 'cause I wanna grow... 'Cause you didn't give me a timeline on how long I'm gonna stay here, so I'm gonna grow some food, 'cause we...

Like, Auckland Islands is pretty remote.

Mm-hmm.

And so what happened is they obviously got, during subsistence hunting, they got a big impact from that and also then sealing had a massive impact as well to the point where there were none left.

So they ended up with just a small colony there And Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands is where they were kind of, the New Zealand sea line kind of took hold.

And it's from there that they're coming back.

So they're coming back from there up through Stewart Island into the Catlins and then up onto the Otago coastline.

So like you say, a sea lion who, who has since been called Mum, um, definitely the, the kind of founder of our population here in Otago.

So she was tagged down in the Sub-Antarctic Islands, uh, on, on, uh, on the Auckland Islands.

And displaying quite unusual behavior for a female sea lion, she moved up and gave birth to a pup up here in Otago.

So what we see with most of our females is they'll return to very similar spots to birth each year.

Since the sea elephant's hide is almost hairless, only the massive coating of blubber he carries can excite the cupidity of the hunter, and then only in the absence of anything that can be easier obtained.

During the course of a whaling voyage down south, it was the writer's misfortune to visit the Auckland Islands in search of sea elephants owing to the unaccountable absence of whales from the vicinity for an extraordinarily long time.

No one of the ship's company had ever seen one of the creatures before, although most were well acquainted with ordinary sea hunting.

When, therefore, it was decided to visit the lonely, storm-tormented isles usually frequented by them, there was an utter absence of enthusiasm.