A climbing couple from Lake Hāwea are en route to South Georgia on the centenary year of Sir Ernest Shackleton's final expedition.

Mountaineers Dean Staples and Lydia Bradey are leading 22 young New Zealand explorers on the Antarctic Heritage Trust trip which follows in Shackleton’s footsteps.

The group flew to Santiago, Chile last week, before they travelled on to Punta Arenas in the south of the country.

After that they went to the Falkland Islands to board Antarctica21’s Magellan Explorer and set sail the 152km to South Georgia.

One of Frank Hurley’s famous images of the Endurance.

Once there, they will spend eight days exploring the island, following in Shackleton’s footsteps and visiting various locations of historical significance.

Four of the 22 young explorers will also join Lydia and Dean in an attempt to climb Mt Worsely. 

Lydia announced the mission on social media as “a Big Adventure … in our attempt to climb Mt Worsley with the Antarctic Heritage Trust”. 

“So many cool people on and off the boat, and the destination of South Georgia, I have dreamed for years of visiting, I am super excited,” she said.

Lydia and Dean hope their team will become the second group (and the first New Zealanders) to summit Mt Worsley, which was named after New Zealand explorer Frank Worsley.

Worsley was one of the members of polar explorer Shackleton’s most remarkable expedition: the Trans-Antarctic (Endurance) Expedition of 1914–16.

The expedition attempted to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent, and while it failed to accomplish its objective, it became recognised as an epic feat of endurance.

After Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and eventually sank, Shackleton, Worsley and two other crew members used the ship’s boats to travel to Elephant Island to seek help. All the crew survived and were eventually rescued.

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PHOTOS: Supplied