Antarctica Cruises from Australia and New Zealand

Trips to Antarctic from Australia and New Zealand usually leave from Invercargill / Port of Bluff in New Zealand 2 (Invercargill has the airport, Bluff, 30km away by road has a deep-water port) or Hobart in Australia 1. Less commonly trips may leave/return from Dunedin in New Zealand which is about 180 km / 110 miles from Invercargill.

The trip may depart and return to the same port or leave from one and return to the other in either direction. It takes about seven days sailing to reach Antarctica from Australia or New Zealand, the journey there and back is usually broken up with visits to the wildlife rich Macquarie Island 3 and others such as Snares, Aukland and Campbell Islands that lie between Macquarie and New Zealand.

Once having reached Antarctica trips usually spend their time either in the Commonwealth Bay area 4 or the Ross Sea region between Cape Adare 5 and McMurdo 6 with possibly a short trip along the front of the Ross Ice Shelf R.

1 - Hobart - Australia
2 - Invercargill / Port of Bluff - New Zealand
3 - Macquarie Island
4 - Commonwealth Bay
5 - Cape Adare
6 - McMurdo / Scott bases
R - Ross Ice Shelf

Distances - km/miles

The distance to be travelled means that trips to the Eastern side of Antarctica take longer than trips to the Peninsula region from South America and are also subsequently more expensive.

There are also a lot less trips departing from this region than there are from South America meaning less choice of dates and of ship.

If you live in Australia or New Zealand or closer to those countries than to South America it is worth also considering travelling to South America and visiting the Peninsula Region, especially if you can extend the trip. Once you have travelled to South America, there is about half the world in between you and home again with a whole wealth of opportunity to visit many other counties on your outward or return journey, you're travelling anyway, so make the most of it.

As of 2012 / 2013 the airfare from Sydney to Ushuaia where most Peninsula trips leave from is between AU$3.5K-6K per person return with the journey taking 20-60 hours to get there (average around 30 hours) and 50-60 hours to get back (more waiting about for flights).

On the other hand, this side of Antarctica is entirely within the Antarctic Circle and a different kind of Antarctica, as remote as it's possible to get on the planet. It is colder than a Peninsula trip and with a higher chance of rough seas at some point. Getting to Antarctica and back again is more of an expedition than the traditional kind of cruise. You will probably not see any other ships during your cruise at all and other than visits to research bases, you won't see any people other than those on your ship.