Ross Sea Cruises

In the Ross Sea the pack ice dictates the wildlife. Unlike around the Antarctic Peninsula, wildlife encounters must be more actively sought – and feel more earned as a result.

The biggest draw for many visitors is the chance to see emperor penguins. Their colonies are too remote to access but there is a good chance of seeing them in small groups on the ice. In contrast, Adelie penguins abound, with many colonies numbering in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of birds. The only flying birds that breed this far south are South Polar skuas and snow petrels.

Seals gather on the pack ice, including crabeater seals, Weddell seals and the predatory leopard seal. Orcas are often easily spotted here. Many local populations hunt by swamping ice floes with synchronised waves to upend the seals resting on them. Minke and humpback whales are present in the Ross Sea, although with visits being made in January and February sightings are not as common as around the Antarctic Peninsula.

Ever since James Clark Ross first penetrated its pack ice and gave the Ross Sea its name in 1841, this part of Antarctica has held deep significance to polar adventurers. Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen all set out for the South Pole from its shores, for the simple reason that it was the furthest land south.

Several of their huts have been well-preserved and restored to allow them to still be visited today, becoming places of pilgrimage for modern explorers.

The most famous is at Cape Evans on Ross Island, built for Captain Scott’s Terra Nova expedition and from where he set out to reach the South Pole in 1911 only to perish miles on their return journey. Crossing the threshold here is a deeply emotional experience for many.

Scott’s hut from his earlier Discovery expedition can be found at Hut Point, near the enormous modern US research base McMurdo Station. Also on Ross Island is the hut at Cape Royds, built for Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition from 1907-09.

Finally, Cape Adare is home to the first permanent building in Antarctica and the place where Borchgrevink’s expedition became the first to overwinter on the continent in 1899. It shares its home with the largest Adelie penguin colony in the world.

One feature dominates the Ross Sea like no other other: the Ross Ice Shelf. Known simply as ‘the Barrier’ to early explorers, it is a sheet of ice nearly the size of France. Cruising alongside it constantly changing white cliffs and watching great tabular icebergs calve from its edge is an endlessly mesmerising experience.

For many visitors to Antarctica, landing on Ross Island is an ultimate achievement. As well as the possibility of being able to step in the footsteps of Scott and Shackleton, those landing here may gaze in awe at the gently smoking Mount Erebus, or land on beaches layered in black volcanic sand once ejected from its crater and now the site of enormous Adelie penguin colonies.

For the rare ships that visit the Ross Sea equipped with helicopters, there is sometimes the opportunity to make a trip to the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Victoria Land. These snow-free valleys are thought to be the driest places on earth: rain has not fallen here for around 2 million years.

One unexpected highlight of a trip to the Ross Sea is the opportunity to call in en route at the region’s many Subantarctic Islands.

New Zealand’s Auckland, Snares and Campbell Islands, along with Australia’s Macquarie Island are all full of wildlife and unusual fauna, laid out like a string of mini-South Georgias leading you south to Antarctica.

Each island is slightly different, but they offer hiking trails and superb bird watching including the chance to see royal albatross on the nests.

Several species of penguins can be seen here including large king penguin colonies on Macquarie Island along with royal penguins, rockhoppers, erect-crested penguins, yellow-eyed penguins and the endemic Snares penguin: unique among its kind for being able to climb trees.

The waters of these islands are home to thousands of sea lions and fur seals, with southern elephant seals also breeding on Macquarie Island.

Trips to the Ross Sea operate on a much more restricted schedule than to the Antarctic Peninsula. Because it is located so far south and consequently so much colder, expedition cruise ships are only able to visit during January and February. Beyond this narrow window it is simply not possible to navigate through the sea ice.

There are upsides to visiting in this restricted period. You’ll be there in the height of the Antarctic summer, with near 24-hour daylight, and the extreme cold means a better chance of clear skies.

You’ll also be able to see ice you might not encounter at other times or more northerly latitudes: greasy or frazil ice that forms as the surface of the sea begins to freeze over, very often happening before your very eyes in the wake of your ship. This then turns into beautiful pancake ice, which slowly grows and coalesces into the thick pack that’s the Ross Sea’s dominant feature.

With the Ross Sea on the opposite side of Antarctica to the Peninsula, trips sail from the Port of Bluff on New Zealand’s South Island rather than Ushuaia in Argentina. Christchurch is the nearest international airport.

The logistics of a Ross Sea trip go some way to explaining what makes it such an exclusive destination. As well as having to stick to the narrow January/February visitor’s window, you’ll need to be able to block out a month in your diary to explore it. Voyages here are considerably longer than the average Antarctic Peninsula trip, lasting around 30 days.

It takes six days to sail south from New Zealand to the Ross Sea. A succession of stops to see the wildlife-rich sub-Antarctic islands means that time aboard is frequently broken up, but with regular lectures from the onboard guides, there’s plenty of time to get ready for your destination and meet your fellow explorers.

To visit the Ross Sea, you mainly have a choice of three ships. There’s the comfortable and ice-strengthened MS Adventurer – a real home for the citizens of the sea that all travellers to this region become – and the elegant Le Soleal. With facilities such as a spa and swimming pool, the French vessel lends a sense of luxury to expedition cruising. You can also choose the cutting-edge Douglas Mawson. 

Alternative itineraries from other ships are occasionally available, offering an exciting semi-circumnavigation of Antarctica as they move between Argentina and New Zealand.