Visit New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands: True Young Explorer Scholarships open for the 2025/26 Season

The megaherb Campbell Island Daisy Pleurophyllum speciosum on Campbell Island

Applications are now open for 2025/26 True Young Explorer Scholarships with new Zealan-based Heritage Expeditions.  The scholarships represent a reduction in the listed cost to travel to New Zealand and Australia's sub-Antarctic Islands as well as the remote Ross Sea Region of Antarctica.  Holders of scholarships are expected to contribute 30% of the advertised cost of the expedition, payable on confirmation of the scholarship berth.

“Every year Heritage Expeditions takes small groups of intrepid travellers on voyages to some of the world’s most unique and remote islands, coasts and shorelines aboard our purpose-built expedition ships.  Founded in 1984 by the Russ family in Christchurch, New Zealand, we are still proudly family-owned and operated contributing to conservation through experiential learning, providing funds for research and management, and our ongoing legacy of creating ‘ambassadors’ through our True Young Explorer Scholarships.

True Young Explorer Scholarships provide a limited number of younger people (aged 18 - 30 years) with the opportunity to join expeditions to experience our remarkable Subantarctic Islands at a fraction of what it would otherwise cost.  In doing so, our aim is to create a league of ‘ambassadors' inspired to help raise the profile and protect these precious areas, and the unique flora and fauna inhabiting them, for future generations.

To secure a scholarship, we are looking for individuals who are as passionate as we are about giving a voice to, and protecting, New Zealand and Australia's Subantarctic Islands and the Southern Ocean.  Whether you are studying science, an artist, in media, involved in community organisations, a teacher or ... we want to know how you will share your experience travelling aboard our expeditions on Heritage Adventurer alongside likeminded passengers and an incredibly experienced expedition team of naturalists, biologists and historians on the voyage of a lifetime.”

Read more here, including how to apply.  Applications close on 22 September 2025.

ACAP Latest News has featured a 2024/25 scholarship holder.  See “In the wake of Scott and Shackleton” - a photo and video essay by Mitchell Roberts.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 21 August 2025