Despite the choppiness of the sea following the last of our gales, we arrived at Wellington Harbor enough ahead of schedule that we hove to for the night in Cook Strait. Even with doing that, we docked off of Queens Wharf around 1130, after only a few hours of navigating our way through the harbor.

As most students, my shipmates, aboard this research vessel would tell you, stepping foot onto the Robert C. Seamans was like walking into a whole new world. Stealing glances at the ship as we loaded our luggage onto it was intimidatin: the ropes (now dubbed “lines”) seemed tangled together and unmanageable; the crew members clamored their way onto the net at the bow of the boat (the bowsprit) like they didn’t have a fear in the world; Spring, one staff member, stood with bare feet on one of the yards about 20 feet above the boat, bending over upside-down to check the rigging.

One of my favorite hobbies that I’ve picked up from my time at Olin is spinning poi, which I was pleasantly surprised to find had Māori roots. Poi are a set of two weighted balls at the end of strings with handles on the other end, and at Olin, poi are one of several different props people could choose to learn how to spin.

Tucked away in the Bay of Islands, Russell and its port have a layered history, from Māori settlement to whaling and debauchery to more recent recreation and big game fishing. The town’s first Māori-given name, Kororareka, translates to “sweet penguin,” after a tale about the sweet meat of the local blue penguin.

Greetings from the Bay of Islands! My name is Tom Rubino, and I am a junior at Carleton College. We have been at anchor in Kororāreka Russell Harbor since Friday at our first port stop. Consequently, this also marks the first time in 72 hours we have walked on a surface that doesn’t sway. More than once, I have had to remind myself not to anticipate and brace myself for a swell!

The last two weeks have been filled with a whirlwind of emotion. From leaving our cottages in the quiet town of Woods Hole, with the weird feeling of separation from some of my now closest friends, to getting on a Hawaiian Airlines direct flight from Boston to Honolulu, spending 21 hours in Hawaii, and then magically ending up the next day in Auckland, New Zealand.

Q&A with Liz Maloney, W-162, Administrative Assistant for the Dean and Faculty. Liz helps manage the remote shore components that play an important role in many SEA Semester programs.  She recently returned from two weeks on the South Island of New Zealand, where she worked with students of class S-289 as they participated in a shore component prior to their voyage.

Today we left Great Barrier Island and sailed back to anchorage just outside of Auckland, marking the end of our trip. For our blog today we have decided to share 31 things (for the 31 people on board) that we and our shipmates have learned about life aboard the SSV Bobby C. along the way:

Hello land people, it’s Mathilde! This morning we anchored the boat in another bay at Great Barrier Island with more civilization. Lots of people went ashore for hiking and French fries though I stayed behind to savor the boat in our final days on board the Robert C. Seamans.

Amalia from C watch here! Happy to report on the beautiful day we had anchored in a bay in the Great Barrier Island. Summer vibes on this part of the world! (Or at least they look like summer vibes to this tropical girl) and seas as calm as a mirror.