The Subantarctic: wild islands far south of New Zealand

An albatross on Campbell Island — Campbell Island: 'abundant wildlife' and a perfect spot for birders (Image credit: Wolfgang Kaehler / LightRocket / Getty Images)

Antarctic cruises have never been so popular, with roughly 100,000 passengers a year. About 98% of them sail from South America to the Antarctic Peninsula, in the west. But just a few sail to the south of the continent, from New Zealand, said Jamie Lafferty in The Telegraph.

The distance to Antarctica itself is far greater from here, so these ships tend to head to a series of small archipelagoes known as the Subantarctic Islands. The westerly winds at these latitudes are nicknamed the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties for good reason, and, without the shelter of the Peninsula, the Southern Ocean can be especially "pitiless". As a result, cruises face a higher chance of failure, but for some (keen birders, in particular) the risk is worth it, so magnificent are the islands and their abundant wildlife.

I chose a 17-day Birding Down Under cruise with Heritage Expeditions, leaving from the Port of Bluff on New Zealand's South Island. Our first dose of the region's "rawness" was the Snares Islands, a "ragged" archipelago home to several endemic bird species including the yellow-crested Snares penguin. Next came Enderby, one of the Auckland Islands, where we admired "remarkable" megaherbs and dodged sea lions during a coastal hike. And then we reached our southernmost destination, Macquarie Island, which came close to ecological ruin in the early 20th century thanks to a politician called Joseph Hatch. For almost three decades, he and his men fed the island's penguins and elephant seals through steam-pressure "digesters" to extract their oil, killing millions of them. Today, however, Macquarie's beaches teem with wildlife once more. On Campbell Island, we spotted southern royal albatrosses – among the world's largest flying birds.