Impromptu antarctic adventurer in the gun

Jarle Andhoy (pictured) had Busby Noble onboard when he set off for Antarctica. Photo / SNPA

Busby Noble, the impromptu crewmate on Norwegian adventurer Jarle Andhoy's illicit trip to Antarctica, faces two grillings when he returns - from authorities and his girlfriend of 20 years, T.P. Teiho.

And Teiho already has harsh words for entrepreneur Gareth Morgan for saying he hoped Andhoy's boat Nilaya sank in the icy Southern Ocean.

"I hope he sinks, she said. "What a thing to say."

Andhoy arrived in New Zealand on January 2, failing to declare a previous deportation from Canada. This attracted the attention of Immigration NZ, which planned to kick him out but Nilaya set sail, with Noble on board, before papers could be served.

Noble told Teiho in a satellite phone call he was learning how to sail and had seen a few seals, but she has not heard from him since. "I just hope he is okay," she said, adding that on his return "I'll give him a hiding for starters, then ban him from any boat and tell him to stay on the ground."

In messages from the satellite phone, Noble says he never planned things this way, "but now that I'm out in the cool, clear breeze I think I'm doing myself a world of good." And in a phone call last Sunday, Noble said he knew all the men on the ill-fated Berserk II voyage last year.

He dismissed the idea he'd be in trouble for sailing to New Zealand's Ross Dependency without a passport or official clearance, though he could face a $100,000 fine. "I didn't realise I needed a passport to visit New Zealand."