As yet there is no definitive classification of the great albatrosses into individual species or subspecies. All are included in the genus Diomedea, and some (the Northern Royal and the Southern Royal) are sufficiently distinct to have long been recognisable as individual species. The remainder form a species complex which, for simplification, I am going to call Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans), but which includes forms that may eventually be classified definitively as either species or subspecies: Antipodean Albatross (Diomedea antipodensis or Diomedea antipodensis antipodensis), Gibson's Albatross (D. gibsoni or D. antipodensis gibsoni), Snowy or Wandering Albatross (D. exulans) and Tristan Albatross (D. dabbenena), this last not in NZ waters. So in theory what I am calling Wandering Albatrosses should be divisible into Snowy, Antipodean and Gibson's Albatrosses, but to confuse matters further there is a large degree of plumage variation with age. If the experts cannot agree on a definitive classification, what hope do I have?
Maori name is Toroa