The Snares Islands

Date: December 29, 2024

After staying at Mount Cook for a few days, we drove south to board a cruise ship going to several of the islands south of New Zealand. These subantarctic islands all belong to New Zealand and are only inhabited by a few researchers on some of the islands. It was a fairly small cruise ship with room for 140 guests. The first stop was the Snares Islands which is a small group of islands about 200 km south of the South Island of New Zealand.

Before the Maori people came to New Zealand, the only land mammals were a few species of bats. The Maori brought the first rats and dogs in about year 1250. This started the eradication of several endemic species of animals (especially birds) in New Zealand. When the Europeans brought more rats, mice, cats, etc. more species were eradicated. The Snares Islands are unique in the sense that they never had mammals introduced to them. This means that many rare birds are still present on these islands. Because of the harsh climate and long distances between island groups in this area, each group has its own unique species.

Some Snares crested penguins on the shore with a low forest in the background:

They are elegant in the water:

Note the tiny dots on the slanted cliff here:

They are all penguins on the way up to their nests on higher ground or on the way down:

These are Cape petrels:

This is probably a red billed gull:

A New Zealand fur seal resting on a rock:

And another one more curious one:

We were quite lucky with the weather. Even though it was summer in New Zealand the weather can be bad on these islands. The water around these cliffs are probably not always this calm: