In Cook's wake to the Sounds

By PHILIP ENGLISH

Adventurers on the Akademik Shokalskiy end up in some of the wildest environments on Earth.

The Christmas-New Year sailings around Fiordland illustrate just how much expeditions can differ.

The eight-day Christmas expedition leaving Bluff on December 21 is billed as Christmas with Cook in Dusky Sound. It traces Cook's 1773 voyage and uses the same anchorages, so passengers can share much of what Cook and his crew experienced.

The New Year expedition returns to Bluff from Milford Sound and covers much the same territory as the Christmas voyage, but with an emphasis on exploring Fiordland.

Both expeditions also visit Stewart Island, and include walks ashore in the predator-free wildlife reserve on Ulva Island in Paterson Inlet and at Port Pegasus.

The vessel's first expedition of summer sails for the subantarctic in November, followed by two more voyages before Christmas.

Visits to the World Heritage sites of the Auckland Islands, Campbell Island and Macquarie Island feature all sorts of wildlife, from seals and whales to penguins and albatrosses.

Two expeditions to Antarctica are made in January and February. The first, a 30-day voyage to the Ross Sea, goes to McMurdo Sound, about 780 nautical miles from the South Pole, and takes in trips to the US McMurdo Station, New Zealand's Scott Base, and the eerie Scott Hut, built for Captain Scott's fateful 1911 expedition.

On the way to Antarctica, another two days will be spent at Macquarie Island, which supports one of the highest concentrations of wildlife in the Southern Ocean, including millions of king, rockhopper, gentoo and royal penguins.

The second 24-day expedition to Antarctica concentrates on its history and the continent's early explorers, particularly Sir Ernest Shackleton.

In January 2002 Heritage Expeditions plans to travel to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula.

The expedition leaves from the South American city of Ushuaia on board the Professor Multanovskiy, a sister ship of the Akademik Shokalskiy.