About Antarctic Heritage Trust | Inspiring Explorers Expeditions™

Antarctic Heritage Trust is a New Zealand-based charity with a vision of inspiring explorers.

Through its mission to conserve, share and encourage the spirit of exploration the Trust cares for the remarkable expedition bases of early Antarctic explorers including, Carsten Borchgrevink, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Sir Edmund Hillary.

It shares the legacy of exploration through outreach programmes and encourages the spirit of exploration through expeditions to engage and inspire a new generation.

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Shackleton’s Hut at Cape Royds, Ross Island, Antarctica 1907-1909 @AHT

Our Inspiring Explorers™ Programmes

Inspiring Explorers™ Expeditions

The Inspiring Explorers™ Expeditions includes both New Zealand-based events and expeditions to the world’s polar regions.

Young Inspiring Explorers™

Young Inspiring Explorers™ empowers young, modern-day explorers to meet life’s challenges by connecting them to the inspiring feats of early Antarctic exploration.

Inspiring Explorers™ Education

The Trust works with partners to create and deliver rich and powerful content virtually and directly to New Zealand students through their classrooms and special exhibitions.

Inspiring Explorers Expedition™ 2017 – Climbing Mount Scott © William Pike / AHT

Our Conservation Programmes

Antarctic Heritage Trust was established in 1987. The Trust manages the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project, which is the world’s largest cold-climate conservation project, caring for five expedition bases in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica:

More than 80 conservation experts from 15 countries have worked in Antarctica on this project conserving the explorers’ bases and the more than 20,000 artefacts the men left behind, including clothing, food and equipment. A number of famous discoveries have been made over the years.

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Captain Robert Falcon Scott writing in his diary in his quarters in 1910 or 1911, during the 1910–13 British Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole. © Royal Geographical Society