Not long after first light this morning, the steep green hills of Macquarie Island appeared on the horizon ahead, welcoming us to another amazing day in the subantarctic. Conditions, however, were challenging to say the least - a strong swell was wrapping around the north end of the island to our planned landing sites on the east coast and the winds were gusting to over 50 knots - but patience, careful planning and hard work by all on board made it possible for us to make two landings on this jewel of an island before night fell again.
At the isthmus we walked among hundreds of southern elephant seals resting in the tussock grass and later, at Sandy Bay, we shared a coarse sand and cobble beach with thousands of king and royal penguins and watched as a small group of killer whales patrolled just offshore. By the time we returned to National Geographic Orion at 10pm, Macquarie had lived up to its promise of being a huge highlight of our expedition.
