Intro:

For centuries, Antarctica has remained the domain of only the most hardy explorers and scientists. Yet today, the great southern continent can be accessed with relative ease.

But should we even be travelling here at all and if so, what lengths should we be going to in order to leave nothing but footprints in the snow?

Orion Expedition Cruises believes that if done correctly, tourism can turn visitors into vocal ambassadors who will help focus the world's attention on the need to protect and preserve this vast, frozen frontier.

Antarctica is perhaps one of the best examples of where tourism operators have agreed to a common set of operational guidelines and procedures in order to help minimise their environmental impacts. This is done through the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, which has more than 100 international companies as members.

However, only one operator - Orion Expedition Cruises - has gone t extra mile and is applying EarthCheck's internationally recognised standards to ensure they are operating according to best practice levels.

It's for this reason that we travel to Antarctica on their vessel and discover one of the most fascinating destinations on Earth.

60 Degrees South

The morning started with beautiful seas and - if it wasn’t so cold - you could almost believe we are cruising in the South Pacific.

Early in the day, the passengers were called on to deck and told we were in for a special briefing. Apparently, we’d soon cross the 60 degrees south mark; thus officially seeing Orion entering the Antarctic Circle.

Excited chatter went up from the group, as we knew that soon, there’d be icebergs on the horizon! But it wasn’t icebergs the crew wanted to tell us about, but rather a seafaring tradition that they must uphold to ensure good luck in our passage. According to lore, all Antarctic Virgins must be sacrificed to King Neptune at the 60 degrees south mark, and the sacrifice would happen immediately!

As a mother of a son whose name is not Jesus, I took misguided comfort in the assumption that any sacrificial duties would not be mine to bear. But as I looked at the other passengers, it quickly dawned on me that none of us could claim to be pure as the driven snow, and that the term “virgin” must refer to something entirely different!

Anyone who had yet to venture in to the Antarctic circle is apparently considered an Antarctic Virgin. That made pretty much the lot of us - about 100 passengers in total - fair game and marked with the sacrificial bullseye.

As we started to wonder aloud at what this would mean, we were asked to strip off to whatever we felt like wearing!

The thought of parting with my much-loved Patagonia polar gear had me ready to run for cover. But the ship’s fire hose was brought out and aimed at us square-on, so off came the layers and I stood there like one more plucked chicken in a gaggle of giggling gerties.

A stream of heart-stopping seawater hit me and I swear the feathers on a penguins bum wouldn’t have felt something that damn cold!

We cowered, trying to take cover behind the next person, who was doing likewise; all the while being doused by what I figured was a madman with a vendetta to settle.

Roaring with glee, expedition leader Don McIntyre seemed to be lapping up his task like a kitten in a milking shed.

The passengers danced around like penguins stripped of our tuxedos and their laughter were sufficiently loud to wake even Neptune from his slumber. I have to admit though; it was so much fun that I went back for seconds!

Rewarmed, redressed and re-drunk after the hosing down, Alasdair McGregor treated us to a talk about the early Antarctic explorers. These pioneering men faced the most harrowing of experiences in what is on record as the coldest, windiest and driest continent on the planet.

Many never made it to tell the tale and it was mind-blowing to learn of their achievements. It was also odd to think that Captain James Cook - an explorer who charted more land than any other man in history - never actually sighted “Terra Australis Incognita”, despite sailing all around it more than once!

This year, it’ll be the 100 anniversary of the Mawson and Scott Antarctic expeditions, but more on that later in the trip. For now - I need to grab another brandy, some hot soup and a bit of a nap...

Love,

Linny

The last leg of my New Zealand adventure would see me falling in to the lap of luxury. After covering so many miles on the road in such a short time, it was great to be heading for a king sized bed, pool and kid-gloved comfort.

The plane touched down at Auckland Airport and we were met by The Langham Auckland Limo. All sounds a little decadent on the surface, but as with many things, there is a story...

Although most people wouldn’t consider that a 5-star CBD hotel could possibly have much of a role to play in maintaining the environment, that’s where they’d be dead wrong! Such properties have arguably a bigger role to play as they tend to have higher guest numbers and potentially larger environmental footprints.

So in our quest to see just how Pure New Zealand really was, we thought we’d end the trip by looking into a couple of tourism industry sectors that are often overlooked but consumers as important contributors to the sustainability movement.

Now back to that limousine...The Langham’s Lexus limos have hybrid engines that make them incredibly fuel efficient. In fact, since the hotel switched across to the hybrids, they’ve reduced  fuel consumption by a staggering 40%!

These cars represent a change in industry thinking and recognition that transport is a significant contributor to the carbon footprint of a traveller’s journey. They’re also proof in the pudding that you needn’t forego a desire for elegance and sophistication in order to do your bit in reducing your emissions profile. All it takes is a little fore-thought about where and how your dollars are to be spent.

On arrival at the hotel, we were met by Rachel Broadmore, The Langham’s Marketing Manager and General Manager Jeffrey VanVorsselen. The two were extremely well versed in the operational practices implemented at the hotel that have helped to position it as the recognised leader in New Zealand’s sustainable tourism sector.

In 2008, The Langham was awarded the Ministry for the Environment’s Green Ribbon Award and named New Zealand’s most sustainable business. Since then, The Langham has secured a string of other prestigious awards, including the NZ Hotel Council's 2010 Sustainability Award for Innovation and Design, which was awarded for their conference venue called The Great Room.

Conferencing is an area that has the potential for generating significant waste and consuming unsustainable levels of energy and water. The Langham has implemented practices and policies to help address this head-on and the result is an across the board reduction in consumption of natural resources. (View The Langham Auckland case study for more details)

But my pick of all the weird and wonderful ways that the hotel is doing its bit has got to be the  Wetarium!

A what? I hear you ask... a Wetarium!

It’s a terrarium in the hotel lobby area that contains New Zealand’s endemic Giant Weta(think giant cricket on steroids). You’d have to hope that they were three blind mice as their Maori name “Wetapunga” means God of Ugly Things.

Wetas are so old that they’ve outlived the dinosaurs and have changed very little in the past 100 million years. Their ears on their front knees and at times, it can be a little hard to tell the front end from the rear... but they’re amazing nonetheless.

No offense intended to the hotel’s Marketing Manager Rachel - but we named the Weta I held after her...

Love,

Linny