On a beautiful hot sunny afternoon our members at our packed monthly meeting sat down to hear about Dave Pinion's wonderful experience joining a team of polar experts for this lifetime dream of his, with slides depicting his travels.

We heard how he had flown to Bluff at the southern tip of New Zealand, boarded MV Ortelius with 80 others and sailed 33 days, over 6000 nautical miles in a temperature of mostly -30°C. Most creature comforts were unimportant with the bonds being made of like-minded travellers with laughter, experiences and learning replacing them.

They crossed the Southern Ocean to the Ross Sea visited the huts of Scott and Shackleton, took helicopter rides from the ship over the glaciers and huge icebergs, sailed along the Ross Ice Shelf, traversed the Amundsen and Bellinhausen Seas soaking up the incredible scenery of the Antarctic Peninsula, we saw it all!

He walked with penguins, who we fell in love with, who were still there just waiting for their waterproof feathers to thicken before they could take to the sea. He saw seals and amazing seabirds and whales all along the way.

Dave's passion and enthusiasm rubbed off on us and this afternoon put in perspective just what dreams are made of together with the joy of experiencing wildlife and nature in their natural environment.

Thank you Dave for sharing your very special experience with us, we really enjoyed your visit.

Bernice Adcock