This week at Macquarie Island: 10 December 2021

Work, walking and a fun night

Field training followed by a trivia night at Macca

It’s been a busy week here at Macca. With the good weather the tradies were able to tick off some of their jobs and the remainder of the new arrivals set out for their survival field training.

Day one, the sun was shining and the penguins singing, so after we packed the last items into our packs, Mark, Tony, Field Training Officer (FTO) Billy and myself set out on the Island Lake track to Bauer Bay hut on the west coast, where we stayed the night.

Day two, we trekked across to the east coast of the island in almost perfect weather conditions, practicing our navigation skills as we went. Luckily the knowledge and skills of map and compass reading was refreshed in our minds and we were able to navigate to our intended resting place for the night, Brothers Point hut. After we settled in for the night it was time to challenge Billy in a game of Yahtzee. Unfortunately we didn’t stand a chance and she came out on top to maintain the title of Yahtzee champion.

Day three, the final day of our training had arrived and to Billy’s disapproval the rain had cleared before sunrise and the sun was out and shining yet again. After three straight days of fine weather, I’m sure Billy was praying to Mother Nature for the rain to swing back again so we trekkers could experience a normal wet day of hiking on Macca. Unfortunatey, due to those budget cuts, it never came!

We took the east coast back to station, passing many elephant seals, royal, king & gentoo penguins and a couple of fur seals along the way. The beach was teaming with wildlife, at some points making it difficult to pass at a safe distance so as not to disturb them.

We arrived back to station before dinner on Thursday, just in time to find out about the planned event for Saturday night: station trivia! The station was broken up into six teams of three people from similar trades/roles. Each team had to come up with ten standard questions, two from each of the five categories – geography, sport, general knowledge, history/science and entertainment/movies/music/film. We also needed to come up with a random bonus question which could be anything. Even, as Scottish put it, an out there question like ‘how many golf balls are on the moon’? We all put our thinking caps on and got Googling.

With everyone now on station Saturday night trivia could begin, although not before another outstanding meal prepared by station chef Nick. One by one each team read out their 11 questions, sitting out that round as we went along. In total each team would need to answer 55 questions. The winning team for the night was Doc Rob, Station Leader Derek and master chef Nick.

Here is a snippet of some of the questions, have a go and see how many you can get right, I will provided answers at the bottom.

Questions:

Between what two countries is the Darien gap?
In what year did Google go online?
In the Finnish sport of wife carrying does the winner win the wife's weight in reindeer meat or beer?
What three American states start with the letter C?
Who won the 2011 AFL grand final?
After Brazil, what country is the second largest producer and exporter of coffee?
What colour is in the middle of a rainbow?
What is a nephoscope used to measure?
What film won the 2019 Oscars for best picture?
What year was the Sultans of Swing: the very best of Dire Straits album released, 1994, 1997 or 1998?
Which city is the southernmost capital in the world?