This week at Macquarie Island: 9 January 2015

Macca expeditioners greatly enjoyed a traditional Christmas celebration. We had each prepared a ‘Secret Santa’ gift for another expeditioner. Santa (AKA summer chippie Joe) put in an appearance which caused a surprise to all, as our expected Santa was the appropriately hirsute sparkie Paul. Joe and Paul did a last minute switch to enliven the occasion. Santa Joe handed out our Secret Santa gifts before lunch, and the effort put into the gifts was great to see.

Chef Benny then put on a wonderful Christmas dinner. We were lucky to be supplied with some excellent Tasmanian seafood for the occasion, and Benny also looked after our non-seafood eaters and vegetarians with tasty options. It was a great day for all and we will have fond memories!

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with a dress up party themed around the letter ‘A'. As with our previous fancy dress parties, many fun costumes were created and most saw the new year in. On new year’s day we held the traditional Macca ‘haggis’ (water-filled rubber devices) hurling contest, won with a magnificent throw from plumber Greg.

We have had two tourist ship visits in the last week or so. On 28/29 December, Heritage Expedition’s Spirit of Enderby had a two day visit, and on 3 January, Silversea's Silver Explorer had a one day visit cut short by unfavourable weather on the previous day.

A special highlight of the Spirit of Enderby's visit was the presence on board of two expeditioners’ partners: station leader Ivor’s wife Vivien and TASPAWS summer ranger Andrea’s partner Chris. These visits provide an opportunity for expeditioners to assist the TASPAWS ranger staff as voluntary tourist guides, and we enjoy showing the visitors our fantastic island and seeing the wonderment on their faces as they take in the wildlife.

We also bid farewell to our wintering field training officer Ian who returned home to New Zealand on the Spirit of Enderby.