The eleven researchers and crew on the Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition journeyed to the Auckland Islands in January 2023 to undertake botanical field work over four weeks on the main Auckland Island. For Te Papa Botany Curator Heidi Meudt, this was her first ship-based field expedition, so many things about this trip were different, exciting, new, and challenging. Below, she gives you a behind-the-scenes peek at what daily life is like on a subantarctic expedition.
Life on MV Strannik
The ship
MV Strannik is a beautiful ship that not only got us safely to and from the Auckland Islands but also deftly ferried us to and from our various landing sites on Auckland Island itself. Having this ship as our base, combined with owner Rodney Russ’ expertise and hospitality, meant we were very comfortable on board (even though some of us botanists are not used to being on water, and I especially got pretty seasick when on the open seas).
The research team slept in Strannik‘s single, double, and triple bunk rooms. Most rooms had their own en-suite bathrooms, and storage areas for our personal gear.
Gear
We had botanical and ecological gear for the collections and research we would be doing on Auckland Island, and we also had our own personal belongings, and a LOT of food!
Food
Did we eat well on Strannik? Why, yes we did! Rodney Russ and the crew did an amazing job coming up with creative, delicious, and healthy meals for the research team during the expedition.
When we were on board Strannik, we all ate together and helped clean up too, which meant the meals were not only beautiful and delicious but collaborative, lively and fun. (We botanists also cooked a few times.) It takes a lot of food to feed hungry botanists and crew. Photos by Heidi Meudt:
On Auckland Island
Compared to when we were aboard Strannik, daily life was much different when we were on the island.
There is practically no infrastructure on Auckland Island, which means we had to be completely self-reliant for food, shelter and water. We had to be prepared for different kinds of weather, including rain, wind and sun, and a range of temperatures, from very cold to almost hot; our climatic expectations for the day were always covered in daily health and safety briefings. We made field work plans a few days in advance according to the weather forecast, using GPS, aerial photographs, and topographical maps to navigate on land.
Gear
Prior to each one- to three-day field trip that we undertook on Auckland Island, we had to prepare our gear and packs. On Auckland Island, each of the seven members of the research team carried a 15- to 25-kg backpack filled with the following: botanical collecting gear, safety gear, clothes, sleeping bags, tents, food, water bottles, cookers, cameras, GPS, cutlery, bowls, cups, personal items, and poo pots (more on that later).
Transport to Auckland Island and landings
Once our packs were ready, the crew helped get ourselves and our gear safely into the rigid inflatable boat (RIB) to take us ashore. Often we did this in two trips.
Getting off the RIB and onto shore was sometimes via a dry landing, where we could go directly from the RIB to dry land. But more often we experienced wet landings, during which we donned gumboots or another pair of footwear (or no footwear at all) and carried our tramping boots to change into once we were on land. Then we were off to for the day!
Food
Breakfast in the field was usually powdered milk with muesli and tea or coffee, and a typical field lunch would include salami, cheese, crackers, and muesli bars, not to mention chocolate and Tim Tams! But sometimes for lunch we would also heat up hot water to make soup, noodles or a hot drink, which could be incredibly reviving for botanists with tired legs, cold hands, and wet feet. A jet-boil was a welcome addition to our field kit.
Camping
For overnight trips, once we decided where to set up camp for the night, we would put up our tents, find some water (more often a struggle than we had expected, due to the warm, dry summer), get settled in, and cook our dinner. Backcountry meals would struggle to compete with the fare we received on Strannik, but they are quick and easy to make, providing tasty sustenance after a hard day’s botanising.
Water
If we were on the island for more than a day, we needed to find fresh water for drinking and cooking. Access to water was critical, so we would fill up our water bottles whenever we could, and it was important to camp near a water source such as a stream.
Toilets?
There were no toilets we could use on Auckland Island, and as part of our permit, we had to take all our solid waste off the island. Research leader Alex Fergus came up with a clever and practical solution to this. We each carried our own personal toileting kits, complete with compostable bags, sheets of compostable baking paper (the ’landing pad’) and of course toilet paper. Completed ‘events’ were packaged up and carried in sealable plastic ’poo pots’. Alas, three days in the field often tested the capacity of the pots. Once back on the ship, we disposed of this waste in a large bucket that got relegated to a far corner of the ship deck (said bucket – now empty – is currently relegated to a far corner of Alex’s garden).
Pick ups and transfers back to Strannik
We organised pick up locations and times with Rodney and the Strannik crew at our daily briefings or by radio. Waiting at the agreed upon pick up location, we would have our packs at the ready. We had to act fast once the crew arrived in the RIB, first getting our gear in the boat, and then ourselves. Very quickly, after putting life vests on and finding a seat on the side of the RIB, we were off, holding on as we sped back to Strannik. Once there, we were extremely grateful for the hot shower, dinner, beds and toilets that awaited us on board.
Acknowledgments
A massive thank you to Rodney Russ and his crew – Simon Truebridge, Katie Frame, and Steve Abley – for hosting us on MV Strannik. Thanks also to the entire research team – Alex Fergus, Chris Morse, Chris Stowe, Brian Rance, Fiona Thomson and Toni Atkinson – for putting up with me constantly taking photos of everyone and everything, allowing me to “document the process” of our trip for this blog. And finally to Brian Rance and Alex Fergus for additions and comments to the draft version of this blog.
Blogs in this series
- Sea lions, spiders, slugs and slime molds: Curious critters of Auckland Island
- Scientific collections and observations from the Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition
- Plantago aucklandica is a megaherb!
- The megaherbs of Motu Maha Auckland Islands
- The 2023 Strannik Auckland Island Expedition: Our favourite places and plants
- Flora of Motu Maha Auckland Islands
- The 2023 Strannik Auckland Island Expedition: An extraordinary botanical voyage to the subantarctic
