Going ashore at Sandy Bay, I was greeted with the most memorable wildlife experience of my life to date.  We unloaded from the zodiac in the shallows, and walked onto the beach directly into a maze of penguins and elephant seals.  As with all of the subantarctic islands, we were instructed to maintain a distance of five meters from all wildlife (when possible, which it wasn’t always), unless the animal approached us, in which case we could stay in our position as long as it was safe.  

All around us were hundreds and hundreds of the large and elegant king penguins, playing in the surf, conversing in groups, and wandering around the beach in their silly way.  Of all of the penguins we encountered, the king penguins were the most curious about us, and would often walk right up to us to investigate, pecking at our boots or looking closely at our legs before walking around us.  Their extremely limited interaction with humans leaves them no reason to fear us, which made these interactions quite magical.  In addition to the kings, we also came across gentoo penguins, royal penguins, and rockhopper penguins, all of which were much smaller and much more shy.