Cruise on Ponant Le Soleal Sub Antarctic Islands

Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
As I mentioned previously we boarded late in the afternoon, Owen arranged a bus to take from the hotel and we were processed to get onto the ship, and our luggage taken on board while sitting in the bus. Very civilised.
Then we had to queue to get our room key (called a magnetic key by the ship since it also identified us). We had a cabin on the top deck very close to the buffet restaurant and a lift.
The cabin was pretty standard except (like most of the cabins) we had a small bath with shower over. It did have some of hand rails but we would have preferred a walk-in shower. TV was excellent complete with a good selection of movies (which I didn't watch) and front facing camera which we did watch from time to time.
Here is a map showing what are to see, click on the links to see the various islands
Most of the islands we were due to visit have World Heritage status under the name of New Zealand Sub Antarctic Islands.
The first bit of news was that were going miss out on our first island Ulva Island because the ship needed to call into Bluff for refueling. No explanation was given  but more of an explanation later.
Click here for a google map link to the islands we visited

For about the six hours we were in Bluff, we were given the choice of shuttle buses to Bluff or Invercargill or a four hour bus trip to see a) the Southern most tip of NZ and b) a lighthouse. We chose the bus trip, I was fascinated by the large hedges planted to form windbreaks. These are different to the ones in Victoria in that they are trimmed to form dense hedges which looked about 10m  high, 4m wide  and 20-30m long.
Unfortunately, as we were coming back from the lighthouse, our bus stopped behind our other bus, and much counting ensured, the other bus had left one of their passengers behind. We found out later that a single man had gone to the loo and the bus had gone when he came out. He had borrow someone's mobile (apparently they remembered the bus companies name) to phone for them to come back. Moral of story: Count before and after stopping.
We then spent the next couple of days sailing into Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sounds.
We had about a 45minute Zodiac cruise into both Dusky and Milford, Lovely sunny weather about 18C. Well worth the accolades. See photos
Sailing south our next island was The Snares Group A group of uninhabited islands , we didn't land but had a two hour zodiac cruise close to the shore. Many birds and penguins of course.
Our next island was Enderby which is the second largest island in Auckland Island. It has become a stronghold for the yellow-eyed penguin and the primary breeding location of the New Zealand Sea Lion.
Leith with most others went onshore for about 2 hours, but there was a zodiac cruise organised which I went on.
After a day at sea our next port of call was to be Macquarie Island for a two day stay
But..
During the night a passenger (not one of our group) fell and badly twisted her shoulder so we were told in the morning that the ship had turned back and we are sailing back to Bluff, 
However the Captain decided we could get back to Macquarie but spend spend only one day there and then sail directly back to Dunedin, missing Campbell and Antipodes Islands.
So we had a day and half to get to Bluff and then a day and half to get back to get back to Macquarie.
We found out later that the previous cruise also had a medical emergency which must drained the fuel tank thus causing us to refuel at Bluff.
To fill in the time we had some interesting lectures.
such as  
9;30am Winds, Waves & Currents (English)  10;30am Les Mysteres des Megaherbs (French) 11:30am Photography workshop (English) 2:30pm "Adaptation of Fauna & Flora in the Subantarctics 3:30pm Presentation de l'ile Macquarie (French) 
We only had about 18 French speakers on board!
One activity was billed as 'Wooden games' these we had never seen before and were quite fun. See photo
We finally arrived back at Macquarie  where we had about two & half hours on shore. I didn't go ashore but had a zodiac cruise in the afternoon.
The weather was good (sun with clouds 34km wind 8C) Wind made the transfer to the shore a little choppy but our parkas supplied by the ship kept us dry.
It was then two days back to Dunedin missing out on the Campbell & Antipodes Islands. 
We did have COVID on board as by day 3 we had two cases amongst the passengers. The ship had reserved a number of cabins so that if one of a couple caught it, they could be isolated till they tested negative.
Shipboard life when at sea was leisurely affair, a late buffet breakfast (it closed at 9:00am) then perhaps a  morning lecture with a nice coffee afterwards - best coffee was made in the Main Lounge which had their own machine.
Lunch was also upstairs from 12 noon, afterwards maybe an afternoon lecture and then for several days we got a card school going four of us would play 500 for a couple of hours.
Dinner was mainly in the downstairs restaurant where we had waiter service but we did have dinner upstairs a fair number of times.
We had two gala dinners one for New Year's Eve and the other a Farewell the night before we landed. Both were degustation with  five courses.
We also had two dinners with members of the ships compliment. One was with the Ships IT man (Ships WIFI and other passenger involved stuff) which was of great interest to me and the other with two naturalists one said he was involved with the eradication of feral pests on the islands and his partner said she came along a few months afterwards to check how effective he had been. I am not sure whether they were joking.
For some unknown reason we were invited to attend the Captain's Table for the Farewell dinner. There were two other couples who were much more senior than us. One had been with Ponant about six times.
We had the choice of  red/white wines - mixture of French and Australian - which were free.
Pre dinner drinks were also free however one could buy 'premium alcohols' if required. There was a 'Cocktail of the Day' available which we never tried.
Being a French ship the currency was in euros, but of course everything was charged to our room and at the end of the trip extracted from our credit card.
As we were previous Ponant travellers (this was our second) we could have free laundry!
Arrived back in Dunedin and our bus was waiting.
The end of a great trip

Comments

Oliver RAYMOND
2023-02-13

Any comments on sea sickness?

davidandleith
2023-02-13

David is a good sailor so had no problems, Leith took some tablets as a precaution but it was never rough enough for her to take to her bed. It did get a bit wobbly but we were in bed.

Louise Wilson
2023-02-23

What an adventurous trip. You two are amazing. Loved the photos. Apart from all the 'up close and personal' interactions with wildlife, I was particularly interested to see the different forms of vegetation on the islands - Snares, Auckland and Macquarie all had unique landscapes.

2025-02-07

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