Good-bye to the Mainland - October 27th

The day I left Christchurch was stormy and wet – I did not hold out much hope for sunshine in the Chatham Islands. But after two hours of the chattiest flight I had ever been on – everyone knew each other on the full plane – we came down into shorts-and-Tshirt weather. No time to relax though. There was a lot to do before heading out to Rangatira.

As a nature reserve, the island has the highest level of protection that can be applied in New Zealand. Everything, absolutely everything we take, needs to go through quarantine. We are shut in a room within a room, spending hours picking all seeds and bits of grass out of socks and shirts and brushing the Velcro clasps of wet weather gear with lice combs. There are bolt holes along the walls so that any creatures we may have in our gear will run into traps. No pests can get to Rangatira. Nothing can put the birdlife at risk.

Late in the afternoon, Abi Liddy, a DOC ranger who has been looking after me since I arrived in the Chathams, tells me that a vicious southerly is approaching. It is due to hit lunchtime Thursday, so the fishermen who will take us to Rangatira Island want to leave at dawn. What does that mean? We have to be ready to leave at 4:30 am, in the pitch black of the early morning! Luckily I wouldn’t be going alone. Abi was coming too, as was Briggs, another visiting ranger, to do some DOC work on the island.