I took a flight to Antarctica - here's what happened next

Unlike nearly everyone I know, going to Antarctica has never been on my bucket list, but I was not going to turn down a chance for a scenic charter flight over the last great wilderness. Antarctica Flights has for 30 years been taking planeloads of curious travellers on this epic journey south that is far quicker (and cheaper) than a cruise. "These flights were designed to give people a taste of Antarctica," says Antarctica Flights CEO Bas Bosschieter, "to draw attention to this beautiful continent which is not easily accessible."

Arriving at Sydney Domestic Airport Terminal 3, I see the Qantas departures board lists in bright yellow "Antarctic Scenic Flight" and wonder at the sense of FOMO among the passengers heading elsewhere, to cities across Australia which this morning seem mundane in comparison.

Bypassing the regular check-in counters (there is no check-in luggage on this flight and you can take a total of 7kg on board), I head straight through security and to Gate 11, where a line of super friendly staff in blue Antarctic Flights shirts hand out boarding passes (two each, even though we're not landing at the other end - but more on that later). Someone's dressed in a penguin costume, posing for photos with passengers.

This is no ordinary flight and there's a bona fide buzz in the air. Strangers chat animatedly with each other. Come boarding time it becomes evident this is an all-ages affair - while Bosschieter says the average age of passengers is generally above 50, the age range is "from 6 to 99" ... and there are plenty of teens and young couples on board today, and parents travelling with their grown children.

Flight QF 1330, marked as "Mystery Flight" on my boarding passes, is scheduled for an 8am departure, but we're not in the air until after 8.30am. Our Qantas Dreamliner 787-9 is full (apart from the centre seats in the economy section's middle aisle, which aren't for sale given their distance from the windows). It's a crowded cockpit, too - as well as a chief technical 787 officer, there are three Qantas captains and a first officer, plus two Antarctic experts, Mike Craven and Greg Fitzgerald, who commentate the journey over the PA, describing what we're seeing while weaving in gripping explorer history, anecdotes about life on the Antarctic bases, and many titbits about wildlife and geology, glaciers and bergs.

As a slightly nervous flyer it becomes comforting to know there's so much pilot expertise up front when Greg, a former Qantas captain himself, describes the aerial manoeuvres this giant aircraft will perform once we reach the continent: figure eights to make sure both sides of the plane get to see key points of interest, and banking up to 25 degrees to get the wings out of the way of the view (a normal flight, Greg explains, will not bank more than 15 degrees, "for passengers' comfort and so you don't spill your chardonnay").

We also won't descend below 18,000 feet to ensure we're always 4000 feet above the highest peak, Mount Minto, in the southern part of Antarctica we're headed for. We reach our destination in less than five hours and spend about four hours flying over it, entering the continent over the Ross Sea, the epicentre of explorer derring-do. About 3.15pm, we change seats in a system designed to give everyone a stint near a window. It marks the start of Flight 1331 back to Sydney, where we land at 10.30pm. Bosschieter tells me: "There is nothing greater than having people line up to shake your hand after you've had them on the plane for 14 hours. Many people can't believe what they've seen."

I am in premium economy, in the front row in window seat 20K and, after the mid-flight swapsy, I move two seats across to 20F, an aisle seat in the mid-section. The configuration is 2-3-2, and we're allowed to use the business-class loos.

An amenities kit includes socks, lip balm, toothbrush and paste - and ear plugs and an eye mask, which are funny in the circumstance; we're all ears for the commentary after all, and the last thing anyone is thinking of on this flight is going to sleep.

The cabin service is the Qantas international full monty, with a menu in premium economy that features an aerial shot of an Antarctic iceberg on its cover. If you're a diehard non-fan of airplane food, it may add nothing to the experience, but for easily pleased eaters like myself it's definitely part of the sense of occasion. Half an hour into the flight, the crew come around with mimosas, and a bit later French champagne (don't mind if I do - the atmosphere is celebratory after all). Breakfast is served about 9.30am - a spinach and feta omelette with bacon, braised beans, potatoes and Hungarian sausage.

There are snacks and drinks on demand (although I never have to ask) throughout the flight, including Reuben grilled cheese toasties and spinach and filo pies. The latter is the culinary highlight of the day, which I eat while beholding the speckled effect of broken-up sea ice adrift on the Ross Sea, and marvelling at how texturous the landscape appears from way up here. Long after the blue and white spectacular of Antarctica is behind us, dinner is served just before 8pm - I've chosen the braised wagyu beef with Italian sugo and horseradish potato mash; perhaps appropriately, the Greek salad on the side is not completely thawed out.

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On this flight, the entertainment has nothing to do with seat-back screens and everything to do with what's outside, and the fascinating information that pours over the PA from Mike and Greg. At 12.40pm, the cockpit informs we'll be over the continent in 40 minutes ... and there's a ripple through the cabin when, right on cue about 1.20pm, we hear the words: "Welcome to Antarctica."

On our left, we are coming up to Cape Adare, site of the first landing on the continent. On the right, we are soon looking out at the peaks of the Transantarctic mountain range peeking above the clouds, which look like a blanket draped across a vast, lumpy, snow-white bed. They seem so close, but we've been told that's an optical illusion, created in large part by how clear the air is at the bottom of the planet. Mike and Greg reel off the landmarks as we fly by them - the Antarctic stations of McMurdo and Jang Bogo, glaciers and mountains, capes and lakes, and bays along the coastline where blinding white meets the deep blue of the Ross Sea.

The weather ahead of us is "crystal clear" and by 2.30pm, I am looking out across the Dry Valleys, swathes of incongruous brown encroached upon by glaciers that point like fingers. It is a view our experts say is the best they've ever had of the Valleys, where it hasn't rained for 700 years. Mount Erebus, the world's southernmost active volcano, comes into view, a plume wisping from its crater.

Greg and Mike point out features I can't really see - like the sunlight gleaming off a new building at China's fifth Antarctic base, on Inexpressible Island, and the Allan Hills, where hundreds of meteorites have been found. We fly over Cape Evans, too, from where Captain Scott left on his fateful second attempt to reach the South Pole.

"Antarctica," says Greg, a veteran of 31 of these flights, "gets under your skin." He's so right. This experience seismically shifts my attitude about Antarctica from ambivalent to utterly intrigued.

What: This season, its 30th, Antarctica Flights will operate eight flights from November to February, departing from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

How much: Prices range from $1199 for an Explorer economy seat up to $7999 for business class Deluxe. A seat in premium economy costs $3999.

Explore more: antarcticaflights.com.au

The writer was a guest of Antarctica Flights