‘Antarctic researcher’ is one of those jobs no one actually expects to get. Like astronaut or MI6 agent, we might have fantasised about it as kids – a starry-eyed mentor might even have told us to ‘follow our dreams’ – but no one really thought it would happen.

With their newly-announced ‘Antarctic Sabbatical’ though, Airbnb is offering five lucky volunteers the next best thing – a chance to learn the ropes of polar living, study microfibers in the ice sheet, and, of course, visit the South Pole.