Just back from 15 days travelling to Antarctica by ship. It was an
expedition cruise in the sense that we had 6 scientists/Antarctic
specialists on board. (There were 100 passengers). The trip departed
from Tasmania and returned into New Zealand which is a lot more
sailing time than those out of Argentina. 6 days sailing to the
Commonweath Bay area. We were kept busy with over 20 lectures when we
were not in expedition mode - zodiak cruising and landings on the
continent and through the sub-antarctic islands of Macquarie, Auckland
Is, Snares.
The MV Orion is 5 star and the catering was fantastic. Had to get on
the exercise bike in the gym every morning to keep the weight
controlled LOL. We were asked to submit a favourite recipe using lamb
to the chef and the five respondents were featured on the last night's
dinner menu! My recipe was roasted lamb cutlets on hot sweet potato
salad with green beans and slow roasted tomatoes.
I got quite a buzz out of it! For the duration of the trip the menus
each night featured signature dishes by Serge Dansereau, chef from
Bathers Pavillion Sydney.

Oh, and we saw lots of penguins, seals, sea birds, ice bergs and
visited Mawson's Hut, the French base on the continent and the Aussie
base on Macquarie Is. Awesome!

--
Cheers
Bronwyn
Oz