Ernest Shackleton’s furthest south was latitude 88° 23′. Amundsen and Scott made it all the way to the pole. I can’t compete with that, but I can claim to have drunk coffee in the world’s southernmost Starbucks cafe, and to have visited the most southerly McDonalds in the world.

Both are located in the city of Invercargill, on the south coast of New Zealand’s south island. Apart from Antarctica, only the southern end of South America and some lightly populated islands lie further south than this.

I visited one such island - Stewart Island. Only a 20 minute flight south of Invercargill but a world away, and visited by relatively few overseas tourists (that was part of its attraction to me). It was pristine primeval forest, prolific birdlife, beaches without footprints, and unpopulated hiking tracks. And unless I fulfill my dream of visiting Antarctica, it was also the furthest south I am ever likely to go.