GPS and logistics - January 1st

Happy New Year! We had a very quiet night last night, or at least we were very quiet and I think all of us were in bed well before midnight. Brigitta was due to put out the very last camera this morning, and I was going to go with her at 4.30 to sit on the rocks at Whalers bay and be one of the first people to see the sun rise on a new decade. It was wet and rainy though, so although the sun must have risen it is never so impressive seeing it through the clouds, so I went back to bed and to sleep.

Sunrise on Rangatira Island:

Sunset on Rangatira Island:

For the last week Brigitta has been in charge of GPS-ing the nests. GPS, or global positioning system, is a US based navigation satellite system. We use a hand-held device that connects to a few of those satellites, usually 6 or 7 of them, and then calculates where we are in the world to a distance of about 10 metres. This will give Melanie a map of the Island with dots on it showing exactly where all the nests are. Brigitta also records the height of the nest from the ground, how high the tree canopy is above the nest and how big the nest is. These data will give Melanie yet another piece to help her solve the puzzle of the Island birds lives.

After Brigitta has taken her measurements, and this is when we know that we are really leaving in two days, we take the pink nest marker tags down. The Island definitely looks less festive without its pink tags.

Cleaning the kitchen......

The other big job of the next few days is of course to pack. Imagine the huge piles of gear, let alone food and clothes, that you need to bring for a three month research trip on a remote island. The food of course we have eaten, but everything else, including our rubbish, has to be carried home. We have a lot of electronic gear, and as we travel to and from the Island by fishing boat, we need to make sure that it is double bagged against the dreadfully corrosive effects of sea water. Everything else goes into watertight buckets.

Buckets packed waiting to go:

Once we have a bucket packed we take it down to Front Landing and store it there until we actually leave. On Sunday we’ll carry all the buckets across the rocks at Front Landing to the point where the ship will pick us up. We can’t do it any earlier in case there is bad weather and high seas and we don’t want anything to get washed off the rocks. Of course we also have to clean up the hut, eat up lots of leftovers, say goodbye to our favourite birds and places, and close everything up before we leave. I’d better get to it!