Heritage Expeditions will welcome iconic wildlife television presenter, author and naturalist Nigel Marven on three Subantarctic Island voyages this season.
Marven, whose indelible career in wildlife filmmaking spans more than 30 years, will travel with the intrepid guests of Heritage Expeditions to explore the rarely visited and wildlife-filled Subantarctic Islands of Australia and New Zealand on three consecutive voyages.
“I’ve done a fair bit of time travel through the magic of television on my shows Walking with Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Park, but the opportunity to visit and explore these Jurassic-looking wild and remote islands south of New Zealand is as close to literal time travel as it gets,” says the zoologist and author.
The former Sir David Attenborough collaborator and National Geographic and Animal Planet regular says the untamed wilderness and diversity of wildlife and otherworldly flora of the Subantarctic Islands, along with Heritage Expeditions reputation as pioneers in responsible exploration of the islands, were key in his decision to join.
READ: We Cruise Eastern Indonesia with Heritage Expeditions
“These little known and windswept wildlife havens are among some of the planet’s last true wildernesses and there’s a very good reason they have been bestowed Nature Reserves and UNESCO World Heritage status. Despite their rugged, inhospitable appearance, these islands are the home and breeding grounds of thousands of sea birds, penguins, seals, sea lions, ancient rata forests and fields of flowering megaherbs – many of which are found nowhere else on Earth.”
The New Zealand family-owned and operated cruise company’s commercial director and expedition leader Aaron Russ says it is a pleasure to host the like-minded naturalist and adventurer on its life-changing voyages and an opportunity not to be missed.
The cruises that Marven will travel on include Birding Down Under (3-19 December 2024), the ultimate Subantarctic adventure visiting all of New Zealand and Australia’s Subantarctic Islands, the Chatham Islands and its remote outlying islands; Galapagos of the Southern Ocean (18-29 December 2024), which explores the wildlife rich Macquarie Island as well as Campbell, Auckland Islands and the Snares on one of the most inspirational and informative expeditions into the Southern Ocean ecosystem; and Forgotten Islands of the South Pacific (28 December 2024 – 4 January 2025), which visits the remote UNESCO World Heritage Sites of the Subantarctic Snares, Campbell and Auckland Islands.
