NEW ZEALAND

Young Explorers Team

• ALISA BARANSKAYA, 20 Russia
• ZOFIA DRAPELLA, 17 Poland
• RAPHAEL GABELLA, 19 Switzerland
• JUN LEE, 17 China
• ANDREW LYNCH, 18 USA
• DANIEL MAIDMENT, 15 South Africa
• SIMON STRAETKER, 15 Germany
• ANNELIES VANHERCK, 16 Belgium
• DUNCAN WILSHER, 18 New Zealand

EXPEDITION MEMBERS

• Mike Horn – Expedition Leader
• Martin Horn – Project Manager
• Alexis Hasler – Operations Manager
• Caroline Rupert - YEP Coordinator
• Erwan Le Lann – Guide
• Dave Rundgren – Marine Biologist
• Nic Good – Expedition Cameraman
• Antoine Carlier – Cameraman
• Dimitri Sharomov – Expedition Photographer
• Malcolm Legatt – Expedition doctor
• Antoine DeChassy – Sponsor’s Representative
• Allen and Sue Higgins – Doc volunteers – Stoat trapping

PANGAEA BOAT CREW

• Nick Leggatt – Captain
• Jacek Proniewicz – Engineer
• Phillippa Hutton-Squire – Cook
• Tristan Jan – Deckhand
• Petrus Correia – Deckhand

YEP 2 NEW ZEALAND Expedition Video Gallery

YOUNG EXPLORERS HAVE THEIR SAY

17 May 2009

It’s 15h00, and we are in the Harbour of Bluff, the most southern town of New Zealand.  After we finally filled up the boat with the 3000 liters of freshwater and put all the food on board we set sail out into the Tasman Sea.  Rainy weather and winds of 30 knots is estimated during our journey to our first anchor point in Fiordland, Coal Island.  The 1163-hectare large island is located in Preservation Inlet.  According to the motto of the Pangaea Expedition “explore – learn – act,” we will start our first Act project. Often visited by early Maori and in the 1890’s, this is the site of Fiordland’s biggest gold rush.  But now, Coal Island is the site of an ambitious conservation project.  Long gone are the sounds of the miner’s pick and sadly too, the birds that were once abundant.  This island held kakapo, kiwi, mohua and saddleback to name a few.  Instead, the island is now home to introduced pest species, red deer, stoats and mice.  Work has already started with the stoats being eradicated in August 2006.  But there is still a lot more to do to keep Coal Island in that condition.  We expect to finish the project within two days.

19 May 2009

It’s 13h00 in cloudy Preservation Inlet.  About an hour ago, we set the last of our 150 traps on Coal Island.  After a little while, we discovered such a giant and awesome waterfall at the end of a cove.  The idea is now to explore the land and reach the summit of this amazing water fall.  After an hour-long walk, we reach the summit and discover a big lake there.  Young Explorers and the team are still relaxing and looking at this extraordinary landscape, when Mike Horn already has a new idea.  And one thing is sure, when you are somewhere with an adventurer, who has already been to the north pole at night or has gone around the world along the equator using just human power as an engine, you can be sure that it is never going to be boring.  So just a few minutes later, he convinced us to go swimming in a 7° C cold lake.  Mike Horn went first, and we all let him motivate us to take a short swim in this cold lake. 

22 May 2009

Seven, ten, twelve.  There are more and more and more, you can’t count them. Suddenly a large number of dolphins are accompanying us during our journey through the Dusky Sound.  Again and again they breach out of the sea, jump along Pangaea and give us, for a moment, the feeling that we are swimming together with them.  Also in the wintertime, these bottlenose dolphins stay in the Fiord’s of Fiordland.  And those dolphins, which live here, are the biggest of their kind throughout the world.  It is just unbelievable to see a four meter long dolphin breaching out of the water and jumping along our boat.

28 May 2009

For three days now we are walking through the temperate rainforest of Fiordland. Surprisingly we haven’t even had one raindrop throughout this trek. Even so, this doesn’t make the track any easier.  Still, the paths (there is not really a difference between path or jungle) are very wet and it’s common that you get stuck in mud or have to walk across a river.  But mud, water and annoying sand flies are not the only attendant on our trip into the wild.  As well we discover again and again the beauty of this unique and breathtaking area.  Mostly in the evening, when we arrive at our huts, there already a lot of Fantail Birds.  There is a Maori legend that says that someone of your family will die as soon as a Fantail Bird flies into your house.  Right now, they are in front of the door and on the roof.  The huts we are sleeping in are made for twelve people but we are twenty people strong, including our cameraman, doctor and the rest of the team.  Needless to say, it can get very cramped.  However, when you sit in the evening in front of the warm fire and you listen to the unbelievable stories of Mike’s adventures, everything else is fast forgotten.  Tomorrow should be the last day of our trip through the wild.  But daylight is short in the New Zealand winter.  We just have nine hours to go the last thirty kilometers.  If we don’t manage that, we will have to take our headlamps or even set the tent somewhere.  In any case it’s an interesting challenge for the coherence of our group.

29 May 2009

Yesterday evening we reached the Pangaea before sunset.  We were welcomed with happiness and warm showers.  Today, however, there is another challenge in front of us.  Together with marine biologist Carl David Rundgren from the University of Otago in Dunedin, we study the salinity in the Fiords of Dusky Sound and Doubtful Sound.  The data will show the impact of the Lake Manapouri hydropower station, whose water is going directly into Milford Sound.  Furthermore, this study is not only for scientific research, but it is also to give  the Young Explorers a practical hands on experience on how to take such measurements.

31 May 2009

Today is the last day of our Expedition through one of the world’s most amazing places.  I finally can say that there were few low points and many highlights.  During the three weeks on this fascinating sailing vessel, together with the twenty-seven people from ten different countries, I explored, learned, and acted like never before.  The challenge for us nine Young Explorers is now to go back to our home countries and as ambassadors of the Pangaea Expedition actively do something for our environment and the future of our planet.  The lesson for this expedition is clear: Whoever has seen a place like Fiordland, with all its beauty and nature, can just as easily become a conservationist!
 

YEP 2 NEW ZEALAND Expedition 1