Style: February 01, 2019

22 STYLE | special feature
Images: ARuss
Top: Passengers experience another way of life on voyages exploring Melanesian culture.
Above: Walrus sit on the ice of Wrangel Island
The busy team are always searching for untapped corners
of the globe, only seen seen by the smallest number of
tourists. They simply won’t settle for anything less than
spectacular for their intimate tours that only a handful of
people are lucky enough to experience. In some instances,
they transport travellers to special destinations that fewer
than 200 people visit annually. Compared even to the 800
people who attempt to climb Mount Everest each year, these
numbers are emotively small.
We really do mean it when we say ‘unique’ destinations.
Aaron recalls a past trip where Heritage Expeditions’
passengers were actually the first tourists to arrive on a
remote island. The crew had to explain to the chief of the
tribe what a tourist was, and why exactly the tourists had
travelled to see their island. The idea of people travelling to
witness the nature and beauty that the island had to offer
was a foreign concept that took quite some illustrating.
After some successful conversing, the vessel set back to an
inhabited island, where they would later receive news that
they had been invited to return and explore the island. Other
trips see guests living, dressing and dancing just as the tribe
do; authenticity at its most sublime. With a new Indonesian
Voyage focusing on some of the most diverse coral on the
globe in sight, more rare opportunities await.
Looking for a downside to this lifestyle isn’t easily done.
Given that a rather large percentage of Aaron and Nathan’s
time is spent at sea, you’d have to wonder if perhaps it was
a struggle to incorporate family life. And while Aaron admits
that he’s reduced his time away due to having two young
children, he still spends around four months of the year at
sea. However, time onboard doesn’t always mean time spent
away from family. Before Christmas, his children experienced
their first expedition. The young ones were treated to a
Fiordland voyage; the first of many sensational experiences
that their own father enjoyed from a similar age. The balance
of land and sea has been mastered it would seem.
Undeniably this is an incredible job that requires huge
amounts of work, knowledge and planning (voyages for 2021
are already in the pipeline), but for both Aaron and Nathan,
the pros outnumber the cons a hundred times over. In fact,
according to Aaron, the only con is that life is too short to
thoroughly explore the whole planet.