New Zealand's Sub-Antarctic Islands

Shortening sail | new zealand sub-antarctic islands auckland campbell island trade wind roaring forties tradewind dunedin
The unpaid "voyage crew" go about the business of furling the jibs in the gathering dusk, a task which includes climbing out onto the nets along the bowsprit

These islands include The Snares, the Auckland Islands, the Campbell Islands, the Bounty Islands and the Antipodes. If any of the islands are shown on a map in a general atlas at all it is usually as a fly speck in a very approximate position. At this point in history they are probably visited by only a few hundred people each year.

Similarly, these beautiful and fascinating, almost pristine (in some cases) places do not appear to have been accorded much in the way of space on the 'net. These pages are an attempt to redress that situation. However, if you know of a site I haven't come across please email me. Also any contributions/info/links would be welcome.,

The photographs on these pages were all taken by me a few years ago and were never meant to be anything other than a personal record of a sailing trip I took. The maps come from various sources.

Taking a trick | new zealand sub-antarctic islands auckland campbell island trade wind roaring forties tradewind dunedin The sailing ship shown in the photographs is the SV Tradewind a topsail schooner registered in Auckland, and owned at the time by the skipper, Mark Hammond. She sailed out of Dunedin and other New Zealand ports taking sailing nuts like me, twitchers and tourists to various parts of the southern hemisphere. Originally a Baltic trader, she had been acquired by Hammond in Holland in about 1986 and re-rigged and fitted out as a cruising vessel. She came out to the antipodes as part of the Australian Bi-centennial First Fleet Re-enactment Fleet in 1987-88 which is when I first sailed on her. Sometime in 1991 she was sailed back to Europe via Cape Horn. The last time I saw or heard anything of her was in 1992 when I saw a newspaper photograph of the Columbus fleet milling around in New York harbour. If anybody knows of her whereabouts now, I'd like to know.

The title for these pages has been taken from the title of the best book for general readers covering the islands that I have come across, Beyond The Roaring Forties by Conan Fraser, with a foreword by Sir Peter Scott, Government Printing Office Publishing, Wellington, New Zealand 1986 ISBN 0 477 013262 7. Despite being in a coffee table format, it is an excellent introduction to the islands' history, geography, flora and fauna and is profusely illustrated with many beautiful and informative photographs. There is an extensive bibliography (which I might transcribe).

Chris Berkeley
chris@netmastery.com.au

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