I’ve read many a story of the ship wrecks off the Auckland Island coasts. How some survivors thrived and how others simply gave up, all within a couple of hundred kilometres of each other…

Where invasives such as pigs were introduced with the hopes of giving any future stranded sailors something to live off. Oh the damage it has done. The human history down here is one of resilience but is also a shining example of our need to exploit.

Whoever named Disappointment Island must have had a grim outlook on life. Where one sees a lack of opportunity to pillage, another sees a force of nature thousands of albatross strong. Thankful to have laid eyes on it and left the shores untarnished with my footprints.