The shipwrecked crew waited for a year to be rescued, but eventually a group of 3 made the 450 km (280 mi) journey to Stewart Island in a dinghy.

[5] On 28 August 1939, just before the outbreak of WWII, a German cargo vessel the Erlangen left Port Chalmers in Dunedin to avoid the crew becoming prisoners.

The Erlangen steamed south to the Auckland Islands and entered Carnley Harbour on 30 August, and anchored at the northern end of the North Arm.

Over the next five weeks, the crew cleared around 1.2 ha (3 acres) of southern rātā forest, aiming to collect 400 tonnes of wood to fuel the vessel.

[6][7][8] Cape Expedition was the intentionally vague name given to a secret five-year wartime programme of establishing coastwatching stations on New Zealand’s subantarctic islands.