Sir Anand Satyanand was the first to visit the subantarctic island since Sir Paul Reeves in the early 1990s.
Before that, no governor-general had visited the island since the 19th century.
Sir Anand, wife Susan, Lady Satyanand, and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson set sail from Bluff on HMNZS Otago on Monday evening to visit Campbell Island and Enderby Island, in the Auckland Islands group.
A group of secondary school pupils and a teacher, awarded the trip by the Royal Society, and several Department of Conservation staff were also on board.
The 50 degrees South Expedition, which will spend the nine weeks on the island studying its unique ecology and its recovery since rats were eradicated, travelled at the same time to Campbell Island on HMNZS Wellington.
Sir Anand walked to the end of a boardwalk, passing many royal southern albatross and the island's megaherbs, which were just beginning to flower.
He said two things struck him about the island - what an extraordinary favour Captain Frederick Hasselborough had done New Zealanders in discovering the island 200 years ago, and what a wonderful job Doc was doing to regenerate land that was never really much good for farming, and turning it back into a sanctuary for birds and plants.
"I've always recognised [the subantarctic] islands as being remote and bleak, but now the bleakness here is grandeur and beauty."
After the tour, Mrs Wilkinson then officially launched the expedition at a gathering at a hut on the island.
University of Otago botanist Dr Janice Lord and PhD student Lorna Little will return to Dunedin with the ships this week, after spending two weeks studying Campbell Island flora.
HMNZS Wellington will depart tonight for Enderby Island in the Auckland Island group, where the Governor-General and other group participants will be given a tour by Doc staff.
