Tag Archives: Auckland Islands

News from Loans: Where to see Te Papa collection items – South Island

6 November 2012 – 10.52am

Over the next little while I am going to let you know where you will see Te Papa’s collection items on display at other places.

Today I am going to let you know where to see some of the items in our history collection in the South Island.

Ship’s bell from the steamship "Mararoa" (1885) Image courtesy of Otago Museum

Ship’s bell from the steamship “Mararoa” (1885) Image courtesy of Otago Museum

If you visit the Maritime Gallery at Otago Museum in Dunedin take the time to find 8 ship models, a ship’s bell from the steamship Mararoa (1885) and a fragment of the decking from HMS Victory, (1759). 

Model brigantine "Aborigine". Image courtesy of Otago Museum

Model brigantine “Aborigine”. Image courtesy of Otago Museum

The models to look out for are the brigantine Aborigine (1866), the19th century passenger ship SS Arawa, the WWI British destroyer HMS Maori, the Royal Navy ‘Tribal’ class destroyer HMS Maori (1938), the torpedo boat HMS Sentinel, the SS Himatangi, the WWII minesweeper HMNZS Waiho, and the MV Johann van Oldenbarneveldt. Have fun!

The Southland Museum & Art Gallery has an exhibition about the Sub-Antarctic Islands titled Beyond the Roaring Forties.  This exhibition is really fascinating and features relics of 19th century shipwreck survivors.  Among them are 6 items from Te Papa’s collection.

“Anjou” spoon and spinning top .Te Papa

“Anjou” spoon and spinning top .Te Papa

This spoon and spinning top were made by members of the crew of the French barque Anjou wrecked on Auckland Island in 1905 and stand testament to the ingenuity of the survivors.

“Dundonald” commemorative marker .Te Papa

“Dundonald” commemorative marker .Te Papa

A poignant item is the zinc sheet pricked with the names of victims and survivors of Dundonald wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1907.

“General Grant” knife and sheath .Te Papa

“General Grant” knife and sheath .Te Papa

A sheath knife, with steel blade and wooden handle, with accompanying seal skin sheath.  The  handle has  “W.N. Scott, May 1866″ carved into it.  Scott was a member of the crew of the sailing ship General Grant, wrecked on Auckland Island in May 1866.  Scott survived the wreck, but died with three other “General Grant castaways in an attempt to sail to New Zealand in an open boat.

“General Grant” zinc playing cards .Te Papa

“General Grant” zinc playing cards .Te Papa

Five playing cards made from sheet zinc also by W.N. Scott.  Scott also made the needle from bird-bone on display.

Next time I will tell you about of our paintings in places you would not necessarily expect to find them.

By Jo Torr | Posted in Borrowing and Lending | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

News from Loans: Where to see Te Papa collection items

15 October 2012 – 12.40pm

Over the next little while I am going to let you know where you will see Te Papa’s collection items on display at other places. Today I am going to let you know where to see some of the items in our history collection in Northland and Auckland.

Anchor, circa 1760, France. Maker unknown. Gift of Kelly Tarlton, 1974. Te Papa

Anchor, circa 1760, France. Maker unknown. Gift of Kelly Tarlton, 1974. Te Papa

If you are in Kaitaia be sure to visit the Far North Regional Museum to see the de Surville anchor.  The anchor is one of three that were lost from the French vessel Saint Jean Baptiste, captained by Jean François Marie de Surville, in Doubtless Bay, Northland in 1769 and one of two that were recovered in 1974.  Both anchors are enormously significant to New Zealand’s history being the earliest authentic European objects found in New Zealand.  If you are ever in Wellington you can see the second anchor high on the wall above the entry foyer at Te Papa.

To find out more about the anchors go to Te Papa’s Collection Online

When visiting Auckland Museum you will see an articulated skeleton of a Minke Whale in their Oceans Gallery.  It’s not that often you see a whale skeleton and when you do it surprises you with how big it is.  This skeleton is about 7 meters in length and suspended from the ceiling so don’t forget to look up!  I’m sorry I don’t have a photograph of it but you can find out more about the Oceans Gallery on the Auckland Museum website.

At Voyager: New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland you will see two of Te Papa’s collection items. 

Lifeboat (ship’s gig), circa 1890, New Zealand. Maker unknown. Gift of the Department of Lands and Survey, 1973. Te Papa

Lifeboat (ship’s gig), circa 1890, New Zealand. Maker unknown. Gift of the Department of Lands and Survey, 1973. Te Papa

The first is the Auckland Islands lifeboat.  In the nineteenth century the New Zealand Government set up a number of depots to aid shipwreck survivors.  This lifeboat was recovered from the depot on Adams Island in 1973 when the depots were no longer needed.

NZL 32, 1993 - 1995, Auckland. Davidson, Laurie, Peterson, Doug, McMullen & Wing Ltd, Southern Spars. Gift of Team New Zealand Limited, 2003. Te Papa

NZL 32, 1993 – 1995, Auckland. Davidson, Laurie, Peterson, Doug, McMullen & Wing Ltd, Southern Spars. Gift of Team New Zealand Limited, 2003. Te Papa

The second Te Papa item is the iconic NZL32 – the New Zealand yacht that won the America’s Cup in San Diego in 1995.  NZL32, or Black Magic as it is otherwise known,  is the centrepiece of the exhibition Blue Water Black Magic.  The exhibition is a tribute to Sir Peter Blake who captained the yacht and led the sailing campaign.

You can learn more about the exhibition on the Voyager website.

Four-poster bed, circa 1870. Maker unknown. Te Papa

Four-poster bed, circa 1870. Maker unknown. Te Papa

By jumping on a ferry and visiting Kawau Island you can see Governor Grey’s bed in the beautiful Mansion House.  Kawau Island was purchased by Sir George Grey in 1862 and he spent a fortune remodelling the house, planting the garden and introducing many exotic and native animals.

Learn more about Mansion House

Next time I will tell you about history collection items in the Wellington region.

By Jo Torr | Posted in Borrowing and Lending, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Auckland Islands survey – Day 18: trading with the winds

28 February 2012 – 3.37pm

It’s our fifth day in the Auckland Islands and so far we have been offered only one day with calm winds. We have become quite good at the game of moving the boat from one end of the island to the other, just to find some protection from the wind. Currently we are in the southern part of the island, in Carnley Harbour.

Yesterday and today, we could only deploy video and trap units in the shallow depths on the west and south coasts. They revealed an underwater world strongly dominated by crabs. We caught hundreds of them in the traps. Several specimens have been kept for the Museum, but the majority of them were released back to the sea. On the video they formed a pile above the bait bag in a matter of a few minutes.

A trap set off Auckland Island caught over 200 crabs in a few hours. A few specimens kept for further study; rest released alive. Te Papa

A trap set off Auckland Island caught over 200 crabs in a few hours. A few specimens kept for further study; rest released alive. Te Papa

Earlier in the day we transited along the west coast of the main island, in very poor visibility.  However, within a few minutes, the sky opened to let us discover the magnificent vertical cliffs of the weather-bashed coast. Some peaks towered above at more than 300m high. We all felt rather blessed working in such a dramatic place.

Cliffs at entrance of Carnley Harbour Auckland Island in the early morning. Te Papa

Cliffs at entrance of Carnley Harbour Auckland Island in the early morning. Te Papa

During an episode of particularly strong winds we were fortunate to be able to work within the confines of Port Ross, a sheltered harbour in most weather. After reconnaissance of the coastline using the zodiac, we found a suitable site to sample the fish fauna of the intertidal zone. Our findings indicate that the area is particularly rich in triplefins and clingfishes.

Recovering a video unit deployed in shallow water of Auckland Island west coast.

Recovering a video unit deployed in shallow water of Auckland Island west coast.

We are now in the last days of our journey and are hoping for some light winds to safely sample the deeper part of the south-west coast. Just a few hours please!

Speak to you again soon,

The fish team, Carl, Tom, Jesse, Jeremy and Vincent

Note: These images look a bit strange. We had to reduce their size to the maximum to be able to send them over our satellite internet connection.

By Te Papa | Posted in Field trips, Fish | Also tagged , , | Comments (3)

Into the Southern Ocean

24 February 2012 – 3.38pm

It has been a few days since our last update. During this time, we have been island hopping on the way down to the Auckland Islands.

After refuelling and restocking the food cupboards, we departed Bluff on a lovely sunny summer’s day, hoping that the good weather will to stay with us for the next leg of the voyage. During our 27-hour journey, we stopped off at two other poorly sampled islands.

Buller’s mollymawk landing (Snares Islands). Te Papa

Buller’s mollymawk landing (Snares Islands). Te Papa

The first stop was Stewart Island, a five hour trip from Bluff, where we spent the night in a comfortable anchorage at Pegasus Inlet. We managed to deploy a few overnight fish traps which were recovered at first light and had caught red cod, hagfish, carpet sharks and conger eels.

Next stop along the way was the Snares Islands. These are a small set of remote islands that jut straight out of the ocean and are home to very large numbers of seabirds, especially the sooty shearwater or titi. These were a fantastic sight for the team.

We anchored for the evening on the east side of the Snares Islands, a great spot for collecting by rod and line. This site proved to be very interesting as we sampled eight fish species, including the girdled wrasse, trumpeter, small scaled cod, and blue cod. It was a late night completing tissue sampling and photography of the catch.

Carl Struthers preparing a girdle wrasse for photography. Te Papa

Carl Struthers preparing a girdle wrasse for photography. Te Papa

Finally, we are on the last leg of the trip to the Auckland Islands. The ocean yet again played in our favour with very mild seas. Even the skipper was amazed with how we have got this far and not seen any severe seas. At 8 pm in the evening, after a 12 hr transit, we can see the faint outline of land, arriving to a cool grey Auckland Island evening.

Thursday 23 Feb. What a welcome to the Auckland Islands! After spending the night at anchor in Terror Cove inside Port Ross on the northern side of the islands, we awoke to a great sunrise, despite being a rather fresh 10°C. The forecast was looking good, so we headed out to the north-west side of the islands. To try and see what the tides and currents were doing in the area, we deployed a relatively shallow video unit at 300m depth. No unmanageable current was encountered. This enabled us to deploy ten units from 300 to 900m. Some units took a little longer to retrieve than others due to the rough terrain, but we had success in deploying our video systems at the Auckland Islands, that is a first for the project and New Zealand.

A fantastic sunrise at Terror Cove, Auckland Islands. Te Papa

A fantastic sunrise at Terror Cove, Auckland Islands. Te Papa

Upon evening review of the videos, we can see there is an abundant life on the seabed, like sea feathers, basketwork eels, a six gill shark and even Maori chief cod.

Tomorrow the forecast is for the weather to change later in the day. At first light, we will evaluate the conditions and decide whether to head out to sea or stay in the shelter and do some coastal collecting. What will the morning bring? More later.

More about this expedition

By Te Papa | Posted in Field trips, Fish | Also tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Our Far South: from shipwrecks to high seas

16 February 2012 – 8.06am

Becalmed in Carnley Harbour. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa

I awoke to find that the boat had moved over night to the bottom end of the Auckland Islands, into Carnley harbour, with Adams island to our south. Adams island is home to Gibson’s wandering albatross – DNA research is currently being carried out to determine if Gibson’s Albatross is distinct from other wandering albatross species.

We had incredibly calm weather and took a zodiac ride up one of the arms of the misty harbour to visit what was left of the wreck of the Grafton. One of the great tales of survival of early sailing in the our sub-Antarctic seas. The five men aboard set about extending one of their life dingies, they had to even make their own nails! they made a sturdy little craft to take three of them back to New Zealand in search of help for the two men left behind.

Wreck of the Grafton. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

Now what is left of the Grafton is used primarily as a sealion hangout.

Our investigations on the rocky shore revealed something that surprised me, a spider living in the intertidal zone! I hope that when I get back to Te Papa that my photo will be enough to help Phil Sirvid identify it.

We spent the morning looking at areas within Carnley Harbour, including an area where rata trees were once cut down by the crew of a German merchant vessel at the start of World War Two. They used the wood as fuel to enable their vessel to reach Chile.

Adams Island in fog, Carnley Harbour. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa

“Figure of Eight” Island is home to the most southern breeding site for NZ sealions in the Auckland group. Unlike sealions at Sandy Bay on Enderby Island these sealions breed  in the bush on this small flat islet.

It has been a calm sailing so far, and so there has been a chance to give lectures and have debates. The primary one today being about the NZ sealion and their interactions with the commercial fishery for arrow squid. Lots of things may be influencing the decline of the this sealion population, however it seems clear that fisheries are unlikely to be completely blameless in this. Female NZ sealions, have to work very hard to get the food they need to be able to keep themselves in good condition and to pass that on to their dependent pups. The squid fishery coincides with the exact time when female sealions are foraging hardest to meet the demands of supplying milk to their pups. NZ sealion is the only sealion in the world where the survival of females is less than that of males: it is mostly female sealions that historicaly have been caught as by-catch in the squid fishery. Which surely can not help when a population like this is affected by other influences like disease outbreaks and even normal levels of predation.

Sealion Exclusion Devices (SLEDs) have been put in the trawl nets of the fishery. There is much debate about the chances of a sealion surviving being thrown out of a net at 200m depth. the fishing industry claims that they are now not catching any sealions, but perhaps these SLEDs are just removing the evidence of mortality from their catch.

I have been keeping a look out for Whales…you can only see them if you look!

Heading south. Image WWF.

After lunch we set sail out in to the wilds of the Southern Ocean on our way further south to Macquarie Island. I am greatly looking forward to seeing the elephant seals at Macquarie.

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Birds, Bugs, insects and spiders, Field trips, History, Mammals, Plants, Whales | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Our far South: Return to Enderby

14 February 2012 – 12.13pm
 
 
 
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Sandy Bay, Enderby Is 1995. Photo Anton van Helden, Copyright Te Papa

I visited Enderby in 1995 as part of the DOC Sealion project. The project is still going today. Sadly the most noticeable thing on my return was the much smaller numbers of sealions and pups.

It is very saddening to hear from Louise Chilvers (DOC’s sealion biologist) that the population has decreased by 50% in the last 12 years alone. In part because of disease epidemics, but probably also because of other factors such as fishing and climate change which may be having an impact on these remarkable animals.

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Sea lion pup suckling. Photo Anton van helden. Copyright Te Papa.

New Zealand sealions Phocarctos hookeri, are the deepest diving eared seals in the world. They have been recorded to dive to depths in excess of 700m. They are sadly, now the rarest sealion in the world, with a population of only about 10,000 animals.

 

The island vegetation has recovered however. After the removal of cattle, rabbits and all other mammalian pest species the undergrowth in the southern Rata forests and the tussock fields that ring the island have bounced back vigourously.

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Southern Royal albatross, Auckland Islands. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

The yellow-eyed penguins seem to be doing well, which is heartening.

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Yelloweyed penguin. Photo Anton van Helden. Copyright Te Papa.

One Southern Right whale was seen, a reminder that in the winter months they come into Port Ross in the Auckland Islands to calve. At nearly 18m these animals feed on tiny swarming crustaceans called Copepods that they sieve through the water with their long baleen.

Right whale, Port Ross, Auckland islands. Image WWF.

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Louise Chilvers and Anton van Helden, Enderby Island.

The Te Papa Fish team will be coming down here in the next week or so to investigate the animals that live deep down in the waters around the island.

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Birds, Field trips, Mammals, Penguins, Uncategorized, Whales | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Fish research team en route for the cold waters of the Sub Antarctic Islands

9 February 2012 – 1.35pm

It’s only about three years I have been living in New Zealand and there is still plenty to learn about the country. But one thing I already know for sure, it’s that February is the best month in the year to enjoy good sun, low winds and warm weather. It might actually be the only one! So I am starting to think that I might be a little bit insane to plan a survey down the Sub Antarctic islands, right in the middle of February. Of course there is a very good reason to do this, but it comes at the cost of abandoning my dreams of diving warm waters this summer.

Map showing the sampling locations already achieved (green) and the two locations still to be sampled (red).

February is supposedly the best month of the year and this should also apply to the Auckland Islands where we will be studying the taxonomy, ecology and behaviour of the fish fauna in cold and deep waters. With the use of our video systems, we are going to film the never filmed before: the deep-sea fauna of those very wild and remote islands.

The Auckland Islands are located at 51°S, about 500 km south of Invercargill and are basically lost in the middle of the Ocean. The group of islands is 43 km long by 24 km wide. The first stretch of land on the West is the tip of South America, some 8000 km away. The first land on the East is actually also South America, and is not closer. This means that winds, rarely dropping under 60 km/h, and sea state can be remarkably unfriendly in the Auckland Islands, with no protection from land for thousands of kilometres. Now you start understanding why I am ready to give up on some mainland New Zealand warmth, in the hope of having acceptable conditions to deploy our video systems.

The MV Tranquil Image is being loaded with scientific gear in Tauranga

 

Working deck of the MV Tranquil Image crowded with all the scientific equipment used to study fish diversity and behaviour.

 

A video unit being hauled back after having filmed the fish fauna off the Kermadec Islands at 1200m depth (May 2011).

 

During this survey, we will also stop by around the Otago Peninsula to do similar work. We will sample the deep canyons up to 1200 m, learning more about fish diversity and behaviour in the area.

In one day, our boat the MV Tranquil Image will be in Wellington and we will be departing.

Speak to you soon,

Vincent

By Vincent Zintzen | Posted in Field trips, Fish | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Our Far South

8 February 2012 – 9.38am

Auckland Islands sign and NZ sea lion pup. Photo Anton van Helden. © Te Papa

Welcome to Our Far South. This coming Friday I will be standing on the dock at Bluff, looking south, and about to board a boat heading to the sub-Antarctic Islands and the great white continent itself as part of the Our Far South project (www.ourfarsouth.org). What will I see?

We all know about Stewart Island and some people might think that is where New Zealand stops; but there is a whole lot of territory even further south than that!

The subantarctic Islands include the Auckland,  Campbell and Macquarie Islands where we will see colonies of sea lions, elephant seals, penguins and our everpresent companions of the southern oceans – the albatrosses.

Our Far South is unique, and is an extraordinary area for Whales and seals, sea birds, remarkable plants, fish and invertebrates from the tiniest plankton to the colossal squid! It is also an area that hugely impacts on the world’s climate. As I head south I will report back to you on the natural environment of Our Far South and how its biodiversity, climate and geology is so intricately interconnected.

Elephant Seal Auckland Islands. Photo Anton van Helden .© Te Papa

Our Far South is an area that although remote is impacted by the things that humans do from fishing (and Whaling!!), pollution, oil and mineral exploration, climate-change. I will be looking at these things and reporting back.

So Hat and gloves on and away we go….heading South!

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Birds, Colossal squid, Field trips, Fish, Penguins, Whales | Also tagged , , , | Comments (2)
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