New Island is 148 miles from Stanley and has been long used as a whaling base, a sheep farm and an occasional guano collection base. It is since 1972 a nature reserve.
At 0730 we disembarked by group, we are group 2, and headed to the sandy beach at Coffins Harbour, past a wreck.
This our first wet landing - and the rubber boots worked well- on landing we regrouped and headed off, on an easy walk, up and over a grassy incline to the colonies of breeding rock hopper penguins, black browed albatross, and blue eyes shag.
Enroute we passed a rabbit sunning itself, kelp and upland geese.
On arrival I first saw a brown skua breakfasting on a small chick - that's life I suppose and the skuas were constantly patrolling the multiple nesting sites which were all over the rocky cliff faces.
The rock hoppers hop down the Rocky cliff faces to the sea then either jump in or are swept by the next wave, the albatrosses need the cliffs and the wind to launch themselves into the air and the lovely blue eyed shags need to be close to their food source. Together they fill the air with a cacophony of cackling seabird sounds - calling to mates, each other and warning off those birds trying to make their way through the colony to get away from their little piece of territory and their chick - because they were so jam packed it made for many interesting exchanges and fractious moments! It was a great couple of hours - with excellent opportunities for photographs of parents and chicks particularly the rock hoppers (yesterday's photo) and albatrosses it was also good for just watching life as a bird - there were also caracaras and dolphin gulls with their red eyes patrolling the colonies looking for a meal.
Back on board I went to the gym before we sailed to our next stop, Westpoint, and our afternoon disembarkation.
After lunch it was a rare dry landing and we were first off as the zodiac groups rotate - at the jetty we left our life jackets in the customary blue bins, and headed out with Franz - the bird expert on a 1.2 mile hike to the other side of the island where in a very different tussock grass setting we watched more black browed albatrosses and rock hopper penguins. I decided to try long and hard to get a good albatross flying shot - today's photo is my last attempt - and not bad if I do say so myself. The island is home to a couple who manage it on behalf an old Falkland island couple hail from Austria and Germany and spent 30 years sailing the seas before arriving here and their small boat is anchored in the harbour.
At the end of the walk we were invited into the house for the biggest spread of tea and cakes you have ever seen - with not many passing visitors this was an opportunity for the lady of the house to bake which is something she loves to do! After a good walk, watching the long tailed meadowlarks and Falkland thrushes as we returned, and having had a nice tea we made our way back to the boat. Wildlife watching was not over because we then watched the steamer ducks in the harbour along with the megallanic oystercatchers, blackish oyster catchers and a dark faced ground tyrant on the jetty catching insects while we waited for the zodiac.
Tonight was Christmas Eve dinner as we set sail for Stanley.
One absurdity is that we now realise, after marketing the ships informality, that they have now brought in a dress code, for some meals, of 'elegant casual' - which means John has to wear a jacket - none packed but that's ok as they give you one which they then hang on the back of your chair - nutty or what but that seems to fulfill their dress code!