Inspiring Explorers Expedition™ Ross Sea Antarctica 2025 is under way!
Our team have boarded Heritage Adventurer and departed the Port of Bluff (NZ), beginning their voyage through the Subantarctic Islands to Antarctica’s Ross Sea region.
We’ll be posting regular expedition updates to our website and social media channels (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X) throughout their journey, so you can follow along as they head towards some of the most historically significant sites linked to the legacy of Antarctic exploration.
Thanks to our Inspiring Explorers™ Fund donors including Inspiring Explorers Expedition™ Partner Heritage Expeditions, and supporter Cheshire Architects for making this journey possible.
Conserving and Repatriating a Unique Artefact
Before departing for Antarctica, our Inspiring Explorers™ helped conserve a unique artefact that they hope to return to Scott’s ‘Discovery’ hut. Young conservator Daniel Bornstein and Conservation Technician Louise Piggin worked in Archives New Zealand’s conservation lab in Christchurch, under Trust Collections Conservation Manager Lizzie Meek, to ready the book for its potential return home.
The well-thumbed copy of ‘The Count of Monte-Cristo’ bears sooty fingerprints and the lingering scent of seal blubber that fuelled the explorers’ stoves as they waited for sea ice to freeze. The book was gifted to the Trust by an anonymous donor who received it as a school prize in 1965. Each year, the Trust is gifted artefacts from around the world that were originally from the historic huts, having found their way into private collections for various reasons over the decades.
If conditions allow a landing at Hut Point, this book will join the 500+ artefacts the Trust has conserved at Scott’s ‘Discovery’ hut, helping future generations connect with the lived experiences of Antarctica’s early explorers.
Watch the video below to find out more:
Expedition Dates
7 January – 4 February 2025
The Trust is excited to announce the eight young explorers who will walk in the footsteps of Scott and Shackleton and experience the Antarctic landscapes that challenged and inspired them.
The group, aged 16-35 from New Zealand and Australia, will join the tenth Inspiring Explorers Expedition™ which will travel to the Ross Sea region with Expedition Partner Heritage Expeditions, into the beating heart of Antarctic exploration and the focus of the Trust’s conservation efforts.
Tenth Anniversary Expedition
For a decade, the Trust’s Inspiring Explorers™ programme has been opening doors to polar exploration for the next generation. Thanks to our donors, we have taken young people to some of Earth’s most extreme polar environments—from South Georgia’s rugged terrain to the South Pole, and from the Antarctic Peninsula’s icy coasts to Greenland’s sprawling ice cap. Now, to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the programme, we will embark on an expedition to the Ross Sea region, the beating heart of Antarctic exploration and the focus of our conservation efforts.
This exciting journey with Inspiring Explorers Expedition™ Partner Heritage Expeditions will immerse our Inspiring Explorers™ in the history of legendary Antarctic explorers like Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Carsten Borchgrevink, and Sir Edmund Hillary. As guardians of their iconic expedition bases, the Trust is thrilled to bring Inspiring Explorers™ to the historic huts for the first time, bridging past and present, while passing along our expert knowledge of conserving Antarctica’s rich cultural heritage to the next generation.
By embracing the same spirit of exploration as the early polar explorers, our team will forge their own remarkable journey through the Subantarctic and Ross Sea region, and develop their ‘Explorer Mindset’. This expedition promises not only an opportunity to explore one of the world’s most remote, beautiful, fragile, and harsh continents, but also a deep connection to the legacy of Antarctica’s heroic-era. It is a unique opportunity to be part of the continuing story of human endeavour in one of Earth’s most challenging environments, where the Trust works to safe-guard important cultural heritage on behalf of the global community.
What does the Expedition Involve?
Presented by Inspiring Explorers Expedition™ Partner Heritage Expeditions, the expedition will be an unforgettable voyage of a lifetime. The Inspiring Explorers™ will participate together as a group, joining passengers aboard the Heritage Adventurer, a 140-guest vessel purpose built for polar exploration with the highest passenger ship iceclass rating (1A Super).
Departing from New Zealand, the young explorers will first encounter the Subantarctic Islands. These pristine sanctuaries, teeming with unique wildlife, will offer them a glimpse into nature’s raw beauty. From rare seabirds to elusive marine mammals, participants will witness ecosystems thriving under strict environmental protection.
As the ship sails southward, participants will immerse themselves in the world of polar exploration through engaging lectures. They’ll witness the changing seascape, observing albatrosses soaring overhead and colossal icebergs looming on the horizon. Crossing the Antarctic Circle, they’ll enter a realm of perpetual daylight, where time seems to stand still.
The expedition’s highlights await in the Ross Island region, Antarctica’s historic heart. Here we hope to visit the explorer bases the Trust cares for at Cape Adare and on Ross Island. Find out more about these bases here. The Inspiring Explorers™ will gain unique insights from Al Fastier, the Trust’s former Programme Manager – Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project, who will join them on this journey as part of the Heritage Expeditions crew. His 18 years of experience will bring these culturally significant sites to life, offering participants an unparalleled understanding of the world’s largest cold-climate heritage conservation project.
Due to the unpredictable nature of ice, Antarctic weather conditions, and environmental factors, specific landings at these sites cannot be guaranteed. Heritage Expeditions will assess daily conditions and take advantage of every opportunity to make landings or send participants out in the Zodiacs.
Ross Island will offer more than just history. The team will have the chance to observe Emperor Penguins, visit Adélie penguin colonies, see the majestic Mt Erebus and scientific research stations which sit amongst untamed wilderness, and marvel at the Ross Ice Shelf.
The team’s journey will begin with a team-building programme in Christchurch from 22-25 November 2024. Here, they’ll connect with fellow Inspiring Explorers™ and begin to learn what it takes to conserve the historic huts from the Trust’s expert team. The journey continues in the weeks before departure as the team takes part in a pre-expedition programme of learning to increase their knowledge of Antarctic history and the Trust’s work. There is also a post-expedition team debrief planned for April 2025.
Outreach
Outreach is a critical part of the Trust’s Inspiring Explorers™ programme. The Inspiring Explorers™ selected for this expedition will become ambassadors for the Trust’s work to conserve the historic huts by sharing their experience with their communities and the Trust’s global network when they return.
Inspiring Explorers™ will also contribute to a group outreach project, which will be to produce a podcast series about the expedition and the Trust’s work to safeguard Antarctica’s important cultural heritage.
Forging Connections
The Inspiring Explorers™ programme isn’t just about exploration—it’s about making connections across time, cultures, and experiences.
As an Inspiring Explorers™ you will walk in the footsteps of legendary Antarctic explorers like Sir Ernest Shackleton and Captain Robert Falcon Scott. You will connect intimately with the legacy of these leaders, not just through stories, but by experiencing the very landscapes that challenged and inspired them. At the historic explorer bases conserved by the Trust, you will feel the weight of history and the spirit of exploration that still permeates these remarkable sites. Sir David Attenborough described visiting Scott’s Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans as, “a time-warp without parallel. You walk into Scott’s hut and you are transported to the year 1912 in a way that is quite impossible anywhere else in the world.”
This once-in-a-lifetime journey will also connect like-minded young explorers. Together, you will form bonds that transcend the expedition, creating a network of future leaders united by their shared experiences in one of Earth’s most extreme environments.
Before the voyage, you will connect with the Trust’s expert conservation team who work on the Ice each year, and will travel with Al Fastier, the Trust’s former Programme Manager for the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project, whose wealth of knowledge and firsthand experiences will provide invaluable insights.
Through these multifaceted connections—with history, with peers, with experts, and with the raw power of nature you will return not just with memories, but with a new vision for their role in shaping the future.
Develop an ‘Explorer Mindset’
Developing the explorer qualities of curiosity, resilience, leadership, innovation and teamwork, our expeditions encourage young people to engage with the spirit of exploration and have the confidence to head into the unknown – to grow an ‘Explorer Mindset’.
One of the Trust’s guiding principles is: “Ka mua, ka muri” a whakatauki which means “walking backwards into the future”.
Inspired by the achievements of Antarctica’s early explorers to further science, test the limits of human endurance, and explore the unknown, the Trust uses the lessons of the past to help the next generation discover more about themselves, and ultimately, drive change and instigate new perspectives for tomorrow’s world. Our Inspiring Explorers™ are challenged to step out of their comfort zone and develop their ‘Explorer Mindset’ as they join an incredible team of people on this expedition.
Building a Leadership Legacy
The names Shackleton, Scott, and Hillary embody exceptional leadership in the face of adversity and their stories continue to resonate globally. The Trust creates pathways within our organisation, offering Inspiring Explorers™ opportunities that extend beyond the expedition, such as the opportunity to be mentors or leaders on other programmes or gain governance experience through our intern programme on our Board. We encourage you to deepen your knowledge, develop your skills, launch a career inspired by Antarctic exploration and conservation, and grow into a leader for tomorrow, enabling you to drive change and pioneer new perspectives for our rapidly evolving world.
What is it Like to Visit the Huts in Antarctica?
Find out from the Trust’s Conservation team.
What is Extreme Conservation?
Learn about the challenges of conservation work in Antarctica.
