The adventure is over.....January 4th

The black robin

What a busy weekend. All the packing took a huge amount of time and due to all kinds of circumstances we didn’t know until 8.30 on Sunday morning that we were going to leave on Sunday at lunchtime. Of course we were organized and by 12.30 we had everything, and I do mean everything, on the rocks, all ready for Glen and the Acheron to pick us up. When we spotted the boat coming around the corner of Pitt Island we knew that that really was it. We were headed for home.

Views from the top of Rangatira Island on a clear day:

We all sat on the deck, surrounded by buckets and fish bins watching the island as it got smaller and smaller on the horizon. There was the Summit where we had spent Christmas afternoon, and the Trig where we had spent Christmas night. There were the cliffs where Melanie and Brigitta had gone to on Melanie’s birthday when the winds were about 40 knots. There was Whalers Bay, my favourite place, where we had swum in the rock pools. There were the skuas flying around Front Landing. And in the bush somewhere were all the robins, the tomtits and all the other forest birds, continuing their lives as though we had never been there. We were all very quiet.

At 2pm, over the noise of the engines and radio, we heard the marine radio; “This is Chathams fishermans radio, Chathams fishermans radio.” The forecast for the next three days is wind, rain and 4 metre swells. We had left just in time........

Photos from Rangatira: