New Zealand
Six hundred kilometres south of New Zealand's South Island, in the vast emptiness of the Southern Ocean that separates New Zealand from Antarctica, Campbell Island rises from the waves as one of the most remote and ecologically significant islands in the world. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, and classified as a strict nature reserve, Campbell Island is home to wildlife spectacles that rank among the most impressive and least witnessed in the Southern Hemisphere.
The island's history is one of human impact followed by remarkable ecological recovery. Farming was attempted here in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, introducing rats, cats, and cattle that devastated the native wildlife. The removal of cattle in 1984, sheep in 1992, and rats in 2001 — in what was at the time the largest rat eradication ever attempted on a sub-Antarctic island — has allowed Campbell Island's ecosystem to recover with astonishing speed. Native vegetation has reclaimed the pastureland, and bird populations have rebounded dramatically, making the island a showcase for what conservation intervention can achieve.
The royal albatross colony is Campbell Island's supreme wildlife attraction. The southern royal albatross — one of the largest flying birds on Earth, with a wingspan exceeding three metres — breeds here in one of its most accessible colonies. Observing these magnificent birds at their nesting sites, performing their elaborate courtship dances or launching themselves from clifftop runways into the Southern Ocean wind, is an experience of visceral power. The island also hosts significant populations of light-mantled sooty albatrosses, giant petrels, yellow-eyed penguins, and the Campbell Island snipe — rediscovered in 1997 after being thought extinct for over a century.
The landscape of Campbell Island is Sub-Antarctic in its most characteristic form — treeless, windswept, and covered in megaherbs: the extraordinary giant-leaved plants that are unique to the Sub-Antarctic islands and grow to improbable sizes in the nutrient-rich soil and humid, windy climate. Pleurophyllum speciosum, with its enormous purple flower heads and huge rosette of leaves, creates displays that give the hillsides an almost extraterrestrial appearance. The island's volcanic geology creates a landscape of harbour inlets, cliff faces, and rolling uplands that are atmospheric in any weather — which is fortunate, as Campbell Island receives rain on an average of three hundred and twenty-five days per year.
Campbell Island is visited by expedition cruise ships on voyages to New Zealand's Sub-Antarctic Islands, typically departing from Bluff or Invercargill. Shore landings are permitted at designated sites under strict biosecurity protocols to protect the recovering ecosystem. The visiting season is November through February, when the albatrosses are nesting and the megaherbs are in bloom. Conditions are challenging — wind, rain, and cold are constant companions — but the wildlife rewards are extraordinary. Campbell Island demonstrates that with commitment and resources, even the most damaged ecosystems can heal.