The trip started in Stanley, Falkland Islands and ended in Christchurch, New Zealand, and was a pretty epic month. Our welcome to the boat was in a howling gale, which turned into a Force 9 gale with 10m waves as we crossed the Yungan Basin part of the infamous Drake Shake aka the Drake Passage. We continued down through the Gerlache Strait, landing at Neko Harbour on the Antarctic Peninsula, and Stonington and Peterman Islands, before continuing west and south across the Bellingshausen Sea to the incredibly isolated Peter 1 Island.
At Peter 1 island, roughly half the boat managed to set foot on the island, bringing the total to 850 that have ever set foot on Peter 1. The rest sadly were unable to land as the icepack closed in causing some degree of worry to the expedition staff that all passengers would be able to get back to the icebreaker! The trip then carried on through the Amundsen Sea, past the Ross Ice Shelf, and historic huts of McMurdo Sound to reach Capes Washington and Adare – home of Emperor and Adelie Penguin colonies respectively.
Finally, the trip visited the very rarely visited peri-Antarctic New Zealand owned islands of Campbell and Enderby, to see yet more amazing wildlife – this time Royal Albatrosses, yellow-eyed penguins and Hooker’s sea-lions – before arriving in Christchurch.
A slideshow of some images from this epic trip around Antarctica runs below, click on Antarctic gallery to see the images in my Photoshelter galleries.
Antarctica – Images by Chiz Dakin