Welcome to the first Macca station news of 2018! In this station update, we review Christmas and New Years at Macca, along with a flurry of 2018 operational activity.

Station update

Happy New Year to all and welcome to the first Macca station update for 2018! We hope everyone enjoyed a fantastic Christmas and New Year period — we certainly had a fun festive period on station.

Christmas Day at Macca was celebrated with a wonderful champagne brunch, followed by a very special visit from Santa Claus, his Elves, and some Macca-centric reindeer! Santa and his team then spent time spreading Christmas cheer and handing out some amazing presents to all of the expeditioners. A traditional Christmas dinner featuring seafood, roast, and delicious desserts followed soon after — Overall, a fun and memorable Christmas for all! New Years Eve was celebrated with a ‘Carnivale’ theme party, featuring a fun-filled evening of games, music, and dancing. Another great night was had by all!

2018 has commenced with a flurry of field operational activity. This week, we have 12 expeditioners in the field working on range of important operational and science projects including azorella, communication infrastructure, and key Macquarie Island bird species including albatross, giant petrels, and skuas.

This week also saw the completion of our first boating operation of the season. On Wednesday, two boats successfully transported two expeditioners and equipment to Green Gorge for a critical communications project, as well as some food stuffs for distribution to the southern based field huts.

Things will remain quite busy over the ensuing two weeks, with another three tourist ships visiting, along with the departure of seven summer expeditioners and arrival of four new expeditioners.

2018 has well and truly begun on Macquarie Island!

Kyle (Station Leader)

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