After expecting to see a "nasty and ugly" site, he found a "beautiful presence" in Mt Erebus.
The former Dunedin man was one of six family members who travelled to the Antarctic at the weekend to mark the 30th anniversary of the Mt Erebus air disaster, which killed 257 people and "broke up" his life.
When he was told he was drawn from a ballot for the trip, he "went into a bit of shock" but was pleased to be able to fulfil a life-long goal.
Mr Houghton first came to Dunedin with his parents in 1976 when his father, John, was on a sabbatical exchange at the University of Otago.
Prof Houghton "fell in love with the place" and moved the family from Reno, Nevada, to Dunedin permanently in 1979, to take up a position in the university's geology department.
After attending George Street Normal School, Mr Houghton went to John McGlashan College.
However, a "misspent youth" resulted in him being sent to a boarding school in the United States, before he returned to New Zealand in 1987.
He now lives in Wellington with his wife and two children.
He is studying psychology at Victoria University.
He was 9 when his father died and said he felt fortunate to be able to do the things his father never did.
"He went off on the flight and didn't come back.
"All the things I did were for him as much as they were for me."
Being able to meet others who experienced the same sense of loss was a relief.
From the moment he set foot on the ice on Friday, the presence of Mt Erebus was undeniable, as it "towers over everything".
However, it was not what he was used to seeing in photographs.
"There is no evil intent in that mountain.
It's almost like a presence in the group."
They were taken by helicopter to the crash site, but high winds meant they could not land on the spot.
"We would have liked to set foot at the crash site and done our service, but seeing it and having a decent go at getting on to it . . . that was OK."
On Saturday, a service was held at Scott Base and Mr Houghton took the opportunity to talk about his father.
"I just talked about him as a person and how much it would have meant for him to be there."
It was an emotional and "incredibly moving" day and also showed the group how changeable the weather was.
"It was grey and overcast and we couldn't see the mountain at all. It was very, very good to be able to see that white-out first hand."
After his trip, he felt "a sense of completing a journey" and felt prepared to "let the past lie".
"It's very hard to come away from that unchanged."
