From a spectacular sunrise over Antarctic ice to a rare "green flash" sighting in California's Channel Islands National Park, the skies were especially beautiful this week.
Today aboard National Geographic Orion we visited Auckland Island, a New Zealand subantarctic island 300 miles south of South Island, New Zealand. We cruised down the east coast and into Carnley Harbor. We had excellent views of light-mantled albatross and thousands of sooty shearwaters. In the afternoon we took to the Zodiacs for close views of the endemic Auckland Island shag. What a great day!
Today we visited Floreana Island, known as the island of the thousand volcanoes. Early in the morning we visited Punta Cormorant where we got to see American flamingos and a juvenile flamingo approached us. This kind of unusual, uninhibited behavior by the animals is the reason why our guests come to the Galapagos Archipelago. It’s truly special. There was time for outings on board our glass bottom boat at Champion Islet and we went snorkeling in clear waters with huge schools of fish and playful Galapagos sea lions. Our great day ended at the historical site, Post Office Bay, with a visit to the barrel to drop and collect post cards, following the old sailor’s tradition. Then we had a kayaking opportunity and were surrounded by many Pacific green sea turtles. It was a wonderful expedition day! Photos by Charles Wittmer and Vanessa Gallo
At Neko Harbor, we walked on the Antarctic Continent near nesting gentoo penguins and a stunningly beautiful glacier. The highlight of our afternoon was watching a pod of type B2 killer whales as they hunted a penguin. Just before dinner, we transited Lemaire Channel, which was made more challenging today by a large iceberg which partially blocked the path.
Española Island is one of the jewels in the crown of the Galapagos Islands. This island is inhabited by countless endemic species that can be observed as you spend some time here. During the morning, we enjoyed the white sandy beach in Gardner Bay, where sea lions were our greeting party and Española mockingbirds were very curious about our visitors. The water was crystal clear, so a deep-water snorkeling took place at Gardner Islet just off the beach. Sea lions swimming with our guests was the highlight! In the afternoon, we put on our hiking boots and explored Punta Suarez, a visitor site with an overwhelming amount of wildlife. Waved albatross, Nazca boobies, blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, sea lions and lava lizards were just a few of the species that can we observed here.
Charlotte Bay was our first landing on mainland Antarctica, if you count fast ice connected to the mainland as a landing. Fast ice is sea ice that has frozen and is connected to land. Although it would be possible to journey onto the continent from this location, we simply disembarked from the ship and walked about on the ice for the morning. We repositioned a few miles away in the afternoon to Portal Point, where we went ashore for hikes in the snow on a beautiful sunny day amongst towering mountains, massive glaciers, and innumerable icebergs. A few gentoo glaciers shared the bay with us, as we made our way through this Antarctic wonderland.
