Horn and his wife, Cathy Gilman, formerly of Dunedin, are spending a week dockside in the city on the 34m custom-built Pangaea before Horn departs for the next part of his current adventure, a four-year environmental project involving young people.
Twelve years ago, Horn (42) swam the length of the Amazon River during an 18-month solo traverse of South America.
Since then, the adventurer-explorer has climbed Himalayan mountains without oxygen, walked to the North and South Poles without dogs, and circumnavigated the Arctic Circle and the equator without motorised transport.
Aboard his yacht in Dunedin yesterday, theSouth African said he viewed his adventures quite simply.
"I don't see myself as doing extraordinary things - it's just what I love doing. It's a way of travelling that doesn't cost a lot and you get to know yourself better.
"I get back and people say 'you missed Princess Di dying' or planes flying into the Twin Towers. Well, I don't mind missing things like that.
"What I get from living alone, my experience, that is payment enough for me."
But for all his big adventures, Horn leads a simple life, "and that is the key to my success . . . because if something goes wrong, it is very easy to fix".
His young explorers programme was a natural progression for him as he got "a bit old" for adventuring, and was his way of helping young people see and understand the world and the environment.
"Everybody's always crying wolf, saying the world's a total mess. In fact, there are still some beautiful places in the world and I want to show these kids those places that we have to respect and conserve."
Young people selected from across the world for the programme were expected to act as sort of "ambassadors for the world".
"Science is great, but we don't know about it because it ends up in university archives collecting dust. Kids communicate it far better than a professor in a white coat can do."
The United Nations had approached him and asked if he could create an official ambassadorial title for those who complete his programme, but he was not keen.
"I don't want to become connected to something or some group.
"I am not interested in politics. I just want to get on with it. I just want people to live correctly. I don't want to save the world - the young people can, but I cannot."
Based in Switzerland, from where Ms Gilman runs the business side of things, Horn travels to and from the yacht, although much of the next four years will be spent on board with the permanent crew of five.
The boat can sleep up to 30.
After arriving on Friday from the Antarctic, Pangaea was scheduled to sail from Dunedin's cement wharf on Thursday for Bluff, where nine young people would embark for a three-week exploration of Fiordland.
Among other environmental work, the group would trap stoats on Coal Island.
