Young Kiwis head to Antarctica: 'You can't really imagine yourself in these places'

A fledgling group of young voyagers is set to embark on the "trip of a lifetime" to Antarctica for a month-long journey in the new year.

The contingent - comprising of seven New Zealanders and one Australian - were handpicked out of hundreds of applicants for the Inspiring Explorers programme, led by the Antarctic Heritage Trust.

During their expedition, they will survey areas previously traversed by the likes of explorers Sir Ernest Shackleton and Captain Robert Falcon Scott, in a bid to keep alive Antarctica's cultural heritage for the next generations.

It will be the first time the programme - aimed at people aged 18-35 - will travel to these historic locations to mark its tenth anniversary.

For one of the eight fortunate to be selected, the anticipation is building.

Wellington's Calum Turner, 28, recalls his curiosity around the icy continent at an early age.

"It's something I read about as a child, I think it was a horrible geography book.

"I remember reading about Shackleton's journey to the South Pole, or his attempt.

"The excitement is building as I learn more and more about what's really there from experts.

"You can't really imagine yourself in one of these places."

With a background in sound design and podcasts, Turner will be seeking out the sounds of a one-of-a-kind setting, although this could have its own limitations.

"There's going to be days where it could be very windy," he said.

"And with microphones that's quite difficult to work around.

"[There'll be] so many environmental conditions that we'll need to be working within what's safe for everybody.

"And it's like I'm going to be able to wander off far from the group to go and record something crazy because it would be just too dangerous to do that."

The group will leave Port of Bluff on 7 January, before heading for Antarctica's Ross Sea region aboard the Heritage Adventurer, a vessel purpose built in the early-90s for polar exploration.

It is here where the touring party will call home for nearly a fortnight, the scene of fabled expedition bases of famed Antarctic voyagers Scott and Shackleton.

Another explorer will be Christchurch's Louise Piggin, who works as a conservation technician at Canterbury Museum.

The 26-year-old said she was eager to get up close with some historic sites.

"I think I'm most excited to be able to step foot inside these huts... people speak about it like it's stepping back in time," she said.

"The last things put there and people have left however many years ago.

"To go back and be transported into these places, it's such a connection to the past and that spirit of exploration and courage that the people who lived there and travelled there had."

Other members selected for the trip include Jake Bailey, Daniel Bornstein, Ngawai Clendon, Lucy Hayes-Stevenson, Maia Ingoe and Kitiona (Billy) Pelasio.

The team got together in Christchurch over the past week, where they worked on the conservation of an artefact that they'll return to Scott's Discovery hut at Ross Island's Hut Point.

The artefact is a copy of Alexandre Dumas' 19th century adventure novel The Count of Monte Cristo.

Bornstein, 32, is the sole Australian among the group, and works as a conservator at Canberra's National Museum of Australia.

He found out, somewhat ironically, he had been selected for the trip while he was on another trip a few weeks ago.

"I was in transit in India and I was navigating through dense Delhi smog and I got this call from the [Inspiring Explorers Programme Manager].

"He said 'what are you doing in January? We'd love for you to come on this trip'."

Within a few months of enduring the swelter of the sub-continent, Bornstein will then be up against the shiver of Antarctica.

He said opportunities like this are vital in ensuring history can be preserved amid "a changing world".

"Attitudes to preservation and conservation are really changing and the sort of artefacts that we have now aren't necessarily as stable and consistent in their behaviour as previous artefacts.

"I think this is the generation where museums and heritage professionals are going to have to come to terms with loss.

"But I think there are much more interesting and exciting opportunities in thinking about different ways we can tell those stories."