Author: Shraddha Wow! What a place and what an abundance of penguins!! The day did not start on the most promising note as our landing at Isthmus Bay was cancelled as the only possible landing site got blocked by two giant seals. So, the expedition team made a call to move to the second landing…

After such a busy start to our cruise we finally had our first sea day. It was time to relax a bit and catch up on our sleep. We attended a few lectures, and the one I liked the most was about how they made the Macquarie island pest free (which we are hoping to…

Author: Mayuresh We visited Campbell Island today in sub-Antartic region of New Zealand. As we left Auckland island, our expedition leader announced that weather on the Campbell Island was not optimal for walk because of the 35-40 mile wind and gust of 49 miles. Still we decided to hike on boardwalk for 4 miles in…

Author: Shraddha Today we woke up to calm seas and great balmy weather. Perfect weather for a hike or a long walk. We had signed up for a long walk around the Enderby islands. During the briefing the expedition team mentioned that a 11-14 Km walk will take 5 hours, we were shocked. Especially since…

Author: Mayuresh After a good night sleep (relatively), we got a briefing of zodiac excursion protocol, and do & don’t for these activities. Something that we knew we have to follow but still seems little daunting task! The expedition leader also emphasized that the itinerary we got is very much a tentative itinerary as this…

Author: Shraddha We drove to Dunedin from Invercargill. Mayuresh was not up for any stops on the way. Antartica and the ship was calling and everything else felt like a distraction. This completed our road trip. We did not get any speeding or traffic violation ticket, some achievement! In Dunedin (pronounced as duh.nee.dn) we walked…

As we are traveling in South island of New Zealand, we are heading further south as our journey takes us to Antartica. We crossed the 45 degree south latitude yesterday, that means we are at the bottom 1/4 of the earth and are now part of less than .01% of earth population for a brief…

Most folks do Milford sound visit as a day trip from Queenstown though it is four and half drive down to the sound and then take an hour or two of cruise around the sound. We decided to take an overnight cruise on Jewel ship with Fiordland Discovery. The drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound…

Yesterday and today we spent in Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand. We started the day with a whitewater rafting trip in the Kawarau river. These rapids are rated at 3, and so were perfect for us beginners. It was a gorgeous day in a beautiful setting with just a touch of adrenaline. The…

You can’t always have sunny and clear days. Today was forecasted to be rainy and we did get enough rain that the day felt a little mystical. We decided to visit Wanaka before heading towards Queenstown. On the way we stopped at Lindis pass. The hills here were all golden with grass interspersed with wildflowers…