Antarctica Unlocked

1,000 departures across 14 operators and 39 ships

Cruises visiting Macquarie Island

6 upcoming Antarctic expeditions with Macquarie Island on the route, from $15,820 per person.

Macquarie Island, halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the royal penguin — found nowhere else on Earth. Some four million penguins breed here every summer.

Ross Sea itineraries call here for beaches wall-to-wall with king and royal penguins and lolling elephant seals.

Wildlife you can spot here

Wildlife

King Penguin

The king penguin is the second-largest penguin species, closely resembling but smaller than the emperor penguin. Look for its dense, noisy colonies on South Georgia's beaches, one of the more reliable large penguins to watch up close on these voyages.

Wildlife

Southern Elephant Seal

The southern elephant seal is the largest of all pinnipeds, with bulls roughly twice the bulk of a walrus. Watching a beachful of them roar and shove over territory is one of the most physical wildlife spectacles the Southern Ocean offers.

Wildlife

Light-Mantled Albatross

A small, sooty-grey albatross of the genus Phoebetria, first described from a specimen collected south of the Cape of Good Hope in 1785. Watch for its slow, buoyant glide along cliff faces and in the wake of ships crossing the Southern Ocean.

Wildlife

New Zealand Fur Seal

Known as kekeno in Māori, the New Zealand fur seal was hunted to near-extinction after European arrival, making today's colonies a hard-won sight. Expect to find them hauled out on rocky shorelines across the subantarctic islands.

Wildlife

Southern Royal Albatross

One of the two largest albatrosses alive, with a wingspan topping three metres. Watch for it gliding low over the swell around New Zealand's subantarctic islands.

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