AUCKLAND – A team is traveling to Antarctica to drill for century-old whisky!

A team of restoration workers from New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust are heading to Antarctica to recover whisky abandoned by the 1909 Shackleton expedition.

British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton attempted to reach the South Pole, but was forced to turn back, almost suffering starvation before catching the departing ship.

The crates of whisky were discovered in 2006 under the Nimrod Expedition hut’s floorboards, but they were too frozen in. The team will recover some of the bottles, but due to conservation rules, must leave the rest.

A sample will be sent to the new owners of McKinlay and Co., the company which made the whisky over 100 years ago. The master blender, Richard Paterson, will attempt to replicate the taste and put it back on sale.

“I really hope we can get some back here. It’s been laying there lonely and neglected. It should come back to Scotland where it was born,” said Paterson.

But the leader of the recovery team, Al Fastier, will be abstaining. “It’s better to imagine it than to taste it,” he said. “That way it keeps its mystery.”