Siteseeing: Chilling out in the Falklands

BY MONIKA FRY

Heritage Expeditions (NZ) Ltd, an eco-tourism company known for its summer cruises to the Antarctic and subantarctic, is extending its voyages to include South Georgia and the Falkland Islands.

Their end-of-the-year, 20-day expedition will travel to South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and South Shetland Islands as well as the Antarctic Peninsula.

The expedition vessel is the ice-strengthened Professor Multanovskiy, which carries 46 passengers. It has a zodiac landing craft to take passengers closer to the penguin rookeries, seal colonies, mountains, glaciers and what remains of the early days of the whalers and explorers. The voyage begins at Ushuaia, in Argentina. Prices start from $US9916 ($23,873) from Auckland.

Rodney Russ, the managing director of the company, is the expedition leader. Formerly a wildlife officer, he established Heritage Expeditions in 1985.

Also on board will be naturalists, who will conduct lectures on all facets of the expedition.

Heritage Expeditions has won an Air New Zealand Ecotourism Award and a New Zealand Tourism Award for Natural History.

A brochure with superb photographs of the wildlife and the rugged landscapes can be downloaded from the Heritage Expeditions site at www.heritage-expeditions.com

An American eco-tourism company, Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris, offers a similar voyage at the end of 2002.

It is intended that the expedition will spend three days in the Falkland Islands, six in South Georgia, one in the South Orkneys and six on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Prices start from $US10,750 ($25,887) and the 28-day voyage also leaves from Ushuaia.