Steve Knowles knows what it's like to call New Zealand's subantarctic islands home and struggles to fathom how early settlers managed to survive there.

The HMNZS Wellington arrived at the Campbell Islands overnight with Conservation Minister Nick Smith, philanthropists Gareth and Sam Morgan and Conservation Department and Metservice staff on board.

The scientific expedition was earlier forced to seek shelter at Stewart Island after sailing through a storm dubbed "hell on earth" during an initial attempt to reach the islands.

While the sub-Antarctic islands are now recognised as UN world heritage sites and are nature reserves, they have a history of attempted but ultimately unsuccessful settlement, both by Maori and Europeans.

Knowles, a Metservice Networks Operations Manager, spent a year on the Campbell Islands as a 22-year-old meteorologist in 1990, and said the early settlers would have faced enormous challenges.

"It's no picnic down there, temperatures quite often get down to the low single figures, you can get snow any day of the year, the days when there's no wind is pretty seldom so wind chill is always a factor and just being able to get out of that and stay comfortable must've been a quite a struggle for those guys."

While he and his four colleagues had hot water, central heating and solid buildings to call home, the early settlers were forced to live in sod huts, he said.

Those promised a new start would have found living on the islands dismal.

"It's a constant struggle with morale, morale can be a big issue in a place like that, and it's really a matter of keeping yourself occupied, having an interest and keeping positive about things... Those guys would've done it pretty hard back in the early days," he said.

"And it's not a matter of going down to the hardware shop to get supplies, you've basically got to make it from scratch if you don't have it there or come up with another solution. It's tough times."

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Little wonder subantarctic islands uninhabited