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AUSUITTUQ/GRISE FIORD - Grise Fiord's Antarctic voyagers have returned home from the relative warmth of the Antarctic summer to the winter of Canada's farthest civilian outpost.

Terry Noah and Jason Qaapik spent days exploring the islands just off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Jason Qaapik, left, and Terry Noah bring a piece of the Far North to the extreme south during the relative warmth of an Antartctic summer. The pair spent days exploring the islands just off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. - photo courtesy of Lee Narraway

"We walked around and enjoyed the scenery and watching the animals," said Noah. There were a variety of seals, penguins and many birds to be seen. It was the nesting season for some species of birds in the southern hemisphere, which gather in Antarctica to lay eggs without fear of predators.

Noah and Qaapik travelled with dozens of university and high school students from around the world with the group organized by Students On Ice. Some of the students from warmer countries remarked on the cold of -10 C, to Noah and Qaapik's amusement.

"My favourite part was climbing into the hot springs in Antarctica," said Noah. "They're geothermal activity, 45 C! We had to jump in the really cold water first and then go in the warm water."

Qaapik's most memorable moment was climbing a glacier in order to set up some scientific instrumentation which will be collected by the group making the trip next year.

"We were measuring ice to see different layers of it," Qaapik said.

On their way to Antarctica, the group visited Ottawa, went to Parliament and met with Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq. From Ottawa they flew to Toronto, then New York and finally the long flight to the southern hemisphere.

In Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, the boys were exposed to one of the keystones of South American culture.

"They were selling soccer balls on the street," said Noah.

Noah also remarked on how crowded the city was and the apparent age of Buenos Aires's subway system, still using passenger cars from before the Second World War.

Beyond that, the last outpost of civilization was Ushuaia, the capital of the state of Tierra del Fuego and the southernmost city in the world. There they boarded the ship MV Ushuaia, which was their home for more than two weeks as they travelled to Antarctica and back.