Antarctica remains elusive for me as a travel destination, but I’m getting closer.
On my Celebrity Century cruise in Australia and New Zealand – from Sydney to Auckland with stops on the way – the ship rounded the bottom of New Zealand, East Southeast of Stewart Island.
Our southern-most point was at the geographic coordinates reading of 47.2 degrees latitude, 169 degrees longitude.
I know this because I asked the Century’s navigator, Georgios Bourboutzoglou.
I told him that was the farthest south on Earth I had ever been.
“Me, too,” said Bourboutzoglou, who is from Athens, Greece.
On any more southern route, you’re probably on a course for Antarctica. Another time, I hope.
If you want to see where we were cruising, click on the map and enlarge until you can see Stewart Island, which is the island at the bottom of New Zealand. That white icy mass below is Antarctica. From Stewart Island, Celebrity Century sailed north, along the eastern coast of New Zealand, stopping at half a dozen ports, including Dunedin, Wellington, and Napier.
