In this Story:

• Following Scott's footsteps
• Related sites and stories

SCOTT BASE, Antarctica (CNN) -- Three adventurers -- including the son of Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary -- arrived at the South Pole Tuesday at the end of an 84-day ski trek across the frozen continent.

New Zealander Peter Hillary and Australians Jon Muir and Eric Philips were trying to ski to the pole and back without supply drops or any other outside support. They left Scott Base on November 4, pulling sleds loaded with food.

But bad weather, bitter cold and winds, illness and frostbite forced delays in the 820-mile (1,312-kilometer) journey. Trapped in their tents at one point for 11 days, the team finally relented and accepted an airdrop from the U.S. base at the pole about two weeks ago.

"Now that I've got here, everything seems worth it," Hillary told a New Zealand television station by telephone from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole base. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

The trekkers will have to spend another night in tents, however: Amundsen-Scott base does not have room for them to sleep inside.

Hillary's father, who reached the pole in 1957, sent his son a congratulatory message, calling the accomplishment a "marvelous achievement." Peter Hillary has also followed his father's footsteps to the summit of Everest, the world's tallest mountain.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth also sent the trio a congratulatory message.

Following Scott's footsteps

Hillary and his companions followed the same route across the polar plateau taken by Robert Scott's ill-fated 1910-1912 expedition. Scott, attempting to be the first to reach the South Pole, arrived there a month after Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Scott and his entire party died during the return trip to his base.

Instead of skiing back to Scott Base, the three modern-day explorers will be flown from the Amundsen-Scott base to their starting point. There they are likely to meet with delegates to a high-level government meeting on the ecological problems facing Antarctica.

Officials from 24 countries that signed the 1959 Antarctica Treaty flew Monday to Scott Base for the first meeting of its type to take place on the icy continent. The delegates are expected to take up issues such as overfishing and tourism.

On Tuesday, the delegates visited historic sites in the area, including an expedition hut used by Scott and his team. British Environment Minister Michael Meacher returned a collection of artifacts taken from the hut by a New Zealand officer during the elder Hillary's expedition.

Meacher gave the items -- including a lamp, medicines, a bottle of linseed oil, a dog harness and a coat hook -- to David Crerar, chairman of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust. The items were rescued from an auction house in 1997.

Reuters contributed to this report.