‘Once-in-a-lifetime experience’: You can now take a day trip to stunning Antarctica

A day trip to Antarctica offers outstanding views without having to undergo the lengthy sea journey.

‘All passengers travelling on flight QF1330 to Antarctica please prepare for boarding.”

The announcement over the speaker in the Brisbane Domestic Airport elicits comical double takes from people hurrying to their early morning flights, stopping many in their tracks – “Wait, did they just say Antarctica?”

If the unusual announcement isn’t enough to turn heads, the person dressed in a fluffy penguin suit greeting travellers near the boarding gate certainly does.

As does the sight of an enormous Boeing 787 Dreamliner typically used for international long-haul flights parked at the end of the jet bridge, positively dwarfing the domestic planes taxiing past.

About 200 other people and I are moments away from embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime experience to witness the beauty of one of the most remote places on Earth – Antarctica. Celebrating 30 years this month, Antarctica Flights operates for three months each summer from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, ferrying travellers to the white continent and back in a single day.

Antarctica as seen from the day-trip flight. Picture: Kit Haselden

I sceptically smile and nod at our friendly flight manager Bas Bosschieter when he tells me the next 15 hours will fly by. And he’s right. We depart Brisbane about 7.30am, enjoying breakfast on board the chartered Qantas flight.

South of Tasmania just before 11am the captain makes radio contact with Dani, the leader at Casey Station – one of Australia’s three Antarctic bases.

It’s 23 degrees on the plane and she tells us it’s a “beautiful day” where she is – “only” minus three degrees with 12 knots of wind – although expected to whip up to 60 knots later in the week. Dani tells us about life on the southern continent we’re about to travel over – the wonder of seeing seals in their natural habitat and of witnessing penguin chicks hatch.

She tells us how important the work of Antarctic researchers is, the lessons we can learn from the remote continent, and how what happens there at the air conditioner of the world has the ability to impact the rest of the globe.

A scene from an Antarctic flight.

“It’s so important for us to preserve the most beautiful place on the planet,” she says. By 12.30pm, the thick cloud that has been present since we left Brisbane gives way to clear skies and we spot our first glimpse of sea ice, sending a ripple of excitement through the plane.

It only grows when the captain tells us soon after that we’re now crossing 63 degrees south – official Antarctic territory.

And soon after, we’ve made it: “Welcome to Antarctica” the captain tells us. The next four hours are breathtaking.

We witness the magnificent towering ice cliffs of the Balleny Islands.

We take in the beauty of the Lillie, Renmick and Matusevich glaciers – the turquoise blue of the frozen slow-moving rivers of ice twinkling in the sunlight. We see icebergs – hundreds of them. Some jagged and towering, others flat and smooth, and many now wedged by sheets of ice in the bays like giant Legos scattered across the carpet.

A passenger takes in the Antarctic scenery. Picture: Kit Haselden

There are the mountains of the Brittania Range, rising up like giants from the northern coastline and cutting inland, jumbled masses of rock and snow.

There are the enormous slabs of ice bobbing in the water like gigantic frozen lilypads. One rectangular slab of ice is estimated at 3km long by our guides.

The plane has descended to about 10,000 feet above sea level, too high to spot the penguins and seals that call Antarctica home, but low enough to see the spectacular scenery – the countless shades of white and the patterns carved by wind and sun and snow.

There is the bright white snow – freshly fallen. The black ice – newly formed on the water like oil. And the deep blue ice – many, many years old.

On board we’re joined by Antarctica experts Dr Diana Patterson OAM and Peter Attard – both of whom have completed multiple expeditions to the icy continent. Patterson gives commentary on the journey, pointing out landmarks including ominously named Iceberg Alley and the site of enormous penguin colonies – distinguishable from the air because of the build-up of guano staining the ice.

We’re lucky enough to fly over the French station – Dumont d’Urville where Patterson once spent time while travelling between bases (similar to the Australian bases but with superior baguettes and pastries, she tells us).

Every journey on an Antarctica Flight is different. The pilots choose from 19 different flight paths taking into account weather and conditions. The landscape is also constantly changing from day to day and more drastically from year to year.

A vast expanse of Antarctica. Picture: Kit Haselden

Under the Antarctic Treaty, it was enshrined that Antarctica be used for peaceful purposes only and that scientific observations made by researchers should be exchanged freely – leading to it being dubbed “the land of peace and science”.

From the air, it’s hard to imagine how inhospitable the conditions below are for human life – sometimes reaching temperatures as low as negative 90 degrees. It’s easier to get people on and off the International Space Station than Antarctica we’re told.

But the work being done by the brave scientists below is crucial to the future of planet Earth and has played a critical role in understanding climate change. Passengers are given two boarding passes for the journey – one for an aisle seat and one for a window seat, swapping half way through the flight to ensure a fair viewing period for everyone.

The atmosphere on board is electric and collegiate. Strangers huddle together at windows, handing over their cameras to take photos for one another, exchanging email addresses to later share pictures, marvelling at the sights – all eager to share the extraordinary experience.

There are passengers celebrating birthdays, graduations, and even a 65th wedding anniversary – Bill and Jan Kitchin were married in 1959 in Camp Hill and spent their anniversary taking in the sights over Antarctica. “We thought we’d make it special,” Bill says.

And special it is. As we finish our sightseeing and the Dreamliner begins the journey north, all the other passengers and I are buzzing with what we’ve just witnessed, sharing photos and stories and toasting our experience with a glass of Champagne. After a delicious dinner, dessert and a movie on the in-flight entertainment, we’re landing back in Brisbane with quite a story to tell.

What did I do this weekend you ask? Oh me? I went to Antarctica.

The writer was a guest of the operators

BOOK IT NOW
Antarctica Flights from $1199 for an Explorer Economy Seat, up to $7999 for a Business Class Deluxe ticket. Upcoming flights depart Sydney on January 26, Perth on February 9 and Brisbane on February 16 (sold out) and Nov 30, and Melbourne on Nov 16.

antarcticaflights.com.au