Experience the Heroic side of Polar Exploration

By guest blogger Steve Newman

Have you ever imagined spending New Year's Eve or early 2011 as part of an Antarctic expedition? If so, you can join the purpose-built expedition cruise ship Orion for a modern-day exploration of Antarctica with departures leaving from Dunedin (New Zealand) in December 2010, and Hobart in January 2011.

Cross the Antarctic Circle before heading for Cape Denison and a rare visit to Douglas Mawson's historic huts, built for the 1911-1914 'Australian Antarctic Expedition'; or explore the Ross Sea region, including Scott and Shackleton's bases still surviving from the 'Heroic Era' of Antarctic exploration. These timber buildings are rare in a world context and are literally frozen in time.

The purpose built expedition ship Orion (with the benefits of oversized stabilisers, retractable sonar and ice-strengthened hull) provides her 100 guests with all the needs of today's adventurers: technology, safety and creature comforts that include fine food and wines, a gym, boutique, hairdressing, sauna and massage facilities - as well as 80 staff, specialist lecturers and polar expedition crew to look after their every need.

These are true expeditions, crossing the Antarctic Circle and voyaging further south than the position of the South Magnetic Pole. Magnetic compasses are useless in these waters, an area that remains largely unsurveyed. Orion's ten Zodiacs, purpose designed expedition transport for intrepid modern day adventurers, will be put to good use for landings ashore in Antarctica and World Heritage listed sub-Antarctic Snares, Auckland and Macquarie Islands, pristine breeding grounds for a huge array of wildlife.

On Macquarie Island, the King penguin colony alone is estimated to have in excess of 170,000 breeding pairs. So rare are visitors here that they are usually ignored by birds, seals and penguins alike as they go about their daily business. See Elephant seals, some weighing as much as three tonnes - more than a car - and the massed gathering of Royal penguins coming and going from the sea.

These are never-to-be-forgotten expeditions to some of the most exciting and wondrous places on earth.

For more information, go to http://www.orionexpeditions.com/ or see the Adventure Cruise Collection brochure.

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