KEY POINTS:
Antarctic adventurers Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald arrived back in New Zealand yesterday each 20kg lighter, bearded and looking forward to a belated Christmas dinner.
The men have spent the past three months on the ice, in a bid to become the first New Zealanders to travel unassisted to the South Pole.
They succeeded in reaching their destination on January 2, toasting the achievement with a tablespoon each of vodka, and some pork crackling.
The men had planned to make the return trip to the Antarctic coast pulled by kites, but Fitzgerald's injured hamstrings, which had plagued him for the last 600km of the trip, forced them to scrap that idea and instead fly back from the pole.
The pair's return to New Zealand could not come a moment too soon for Fitzgerald's mother, Wendy.
"I have been waiting for this day since the day they left ... It was a very quiet and anxious Christmas."
The family was planning a "big celebration dinner" and Fitzgerald, 26, of Tauranga, had already "put in lots of requests" for things he wanted to see on the menu.
"He has remembered my baking repertoire to the dot," Mrs Fitzgerald said.
Biggar, 36, of Auckland, said it was "fantastic" to be home, as the pair had been "living and working in a vacuum", since departing for the ice in October.
The men - who had previously rowed across the Atlantic Ocean together - had vowed to make their next adventure shorter and warmer, but no firm plans have yet been formulated.
"Kevin and I have brainstormed a few things," Fitzgerald said, but the Antarctic expedition had taken a total of two years' planning, with the three months on the ice "merely the sharp end of the stick".
Fitzgerald has a planned a series of talks at secondary schools, but for the moment, the men are thinking chiefly about their stomachs.
"It's going to be great to get into some fruit cake and maybe some crayfish," he said.
