Tag Archives: Antarctica

Life on Scott Base Shared via TikTok

Life on Scott Base Shared via TikTok

As part of the Guardian series ‘Life on the edge’, Scott Base redevelopment manager Matthew Jordan talks to Eva Corlett about what it’s like to live inside New Zealand’s Antarctica headquarters. “My work is supporting…

Diary of Polar Explorer Clarence Hare Published

Diary of Polar Explorer Clarence Hare Published

Early explorer New Zealander Clarence Hare, who survived being lost in Antarctica long before retiring to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, has had his famous diary published for the first time, 55 years after his death,…

Antarctic Explorers’ Logbook Found at MetService

Antarctic Explorers’ Logbook Found at MetService

“Priceless” artefacts linked to Antarctic explorers Ernest Shackleton and Captain Robert Falcon Scott have been unearthed in a surprise discovery within a dark storage room of New Zealand’s meteorological service, Eva Corlett reports for…

Study Suggests Māori First to Encounter Antarctica

Study Suggests Māori First to Encounter Antarctica

Māori explorers could have been the first humans to set eyes on Antarctica as far back as the 7th century, a new study suggests, even though for the past 200 years, tales of discovering…

Antarctica Trip Motivates Lorde on All Levels

Antarctica Trip Motivates Lorde on All Levels

New Zealand-born singer Lorde, 24, has teased fans with more information about a new album while announcing her book, Going South, inspired by her 2019 trip to Antarctica. The Independent’s Isobel Lewis reports. The “Green Light” singer has…

Antarctic Tour Guide Tarn Pilkington Job Addictive

Antarctic Tour Guide Tarn Pilkington Job Addictive

There is no doubt that Ernest Shackleton’s endeavours in 1916 – when he sailed a lifeboat 1287km across the southern Atlantic Ocean, crossed the remote frozen outcrop of South Georgia and returned to the…

Bill Manhire’s Antarctic Poems Spare and Tender

Bill Manhire’s Antarctic Poems Spare and Tender

Ernest Shackleton’s account of his mission and New Zealander Bill Manhire’s Field Notes are among Canadian author Jean McNeil’s favourites about the Antarctic continent. “Antarctica is the fifth largest continent, but it is home to almost…

Geopolitics and New Zealand’s Antarctic Presence

Geopolitics and New Zealand’s Antarctic Presence

New Zealand is increasingly mobilising resources to secure a share of Antarctica. Current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific, The Diplomat investigates. “When New Zealand’s Defence Minister Ron Mark presented the new 2018 Strategic Defence Policy Statement…

World’s Longest Emperor Penguin Dive Recorded

World’s Longest Emperor Penguin Dive Recorded

Scientists in Antarctica have recorded the world’s longest penguin dive, an astounding 32.2 minutes under the water, a full five minutes longer than the previous record. Emperor penguins, which live only in Antarctica, are the…

Queenstown One of the Best Places to See Southern Lights

Queenstown One of the Best Places to See Southern Lights

The southern lights or aurora australis are the southern cousin to the aurora borealis and can best be seen from the most southern of landmasses, such as Tasmania, New Zealand and Antarctica, writes Jennifer…

Antarctic Meteorologist Receives Polar Award

Antarctic Meteorologist Receives Polar Award

Auckland-born meteorologist Agnieszka Fryckowska has received the prestigious Polar Award for her service with the British Antarctic Survey, joining the ranks of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Ernest Shackleton. Fryckowska was flown from her home…

Antarctica shaping up as 21st century geopolitical hotspot

Antarctica shaping up as 21st century geopolitical hotspot

The locale of one of today’s greatest real estate development grabs might surprise you. It’s not Dubai, Las Vegas, or Shanghai, but the frozen continent that rests at the end of the world. Writing…

Joseph Michael Capturing Moments of Magic

Joseph Michael Capturing Moments of Magic

Joseph Michael, New Zealand photographer, spent hours capturing the light from glowworms in limestone caves, a photographic feat for the low light and freezing temperatures. Because the glowworms are found above water, Michael stood hours in…

New Zealand Researchers Track Blue Whale Songs off Antarctica

New Zealand Researchers Track Blue Whale Songs off Antarctica

A team of researchers from New Zealand and Australia has successfully tracked scores of blue whales off Antarctica during a six-week expedition to the Southern Ocean. Voyage leader Richard O’Driscoll said…

Erebus – Into the Unknown

Erebus – Into the Unknown

History has always proved a success topic for film, acting as a means of celebration of those lost and those who have made a difference. The new documentary-film Erebus: Into the Unknown does both…

Antarctica Travelogue Gorgeously Photographed

Antarctica Travelogue Gorgeously Photographed

“Anthony Powell’s Antarctica: A Year on Ice is a gorgeously photographed travelogue about the harshest terrain on Earth,” writes Star Tribune reviewer Colin Covert. “Powell’s feature-length documentary is a trove of time-lapse shots and…

Antarctica: No Ordinary Place, No Ordinary Assignment

Antarctica: No Ordinary Place, No Ordinary Assignment

Two applicant’s get a chance of a lifetime to document and discover Antarctica with the help of Air New Zealand. Follow the story of Jason Edwards – National Geographic…

At Home in Manhattan with Makeup Artist Valery Gherman

At Home in Manhattan with Makeup Artist Valery Gherman

New Zealand makeup artist Valery Gherman moved to New York 11 years ago and now lives in Manhattan’s famed Peter Cooper Village where he shares a two-bedroom apartment with Canadian photographer Derek…

Ancient Seabird Fossil Found Dating Back 58 Million Years

Ancient Seabird Fossil Found Dating Back 58 Million Years

A fossil of one of the world’s oldest flying seabirds, named Australornis lovei, has been found in in greensand deposits in North Canterbury, linking New Zealand to Antarctica when it was still being formed,…

Ice Telescope to Reveal Secrets of the Universe

Ice Telescope to Reveal Secrets of the Universe

27 November 2013 – University of Canterbury scientists are using a telescope pointed at the earth’s interior over 2000m below the surface of ice in Antarctica to study tiny particles in the hope of…

Life on Board Ship a Daily Adventure into the Wild

Life on Board Ship a Daily Adventure into the Wild

For the past 24 years, New Zealand mountain climber Greg Landreth and Canadian photographer Keri Pashuk have been living on a sailboat, travelling thousands of nautical miles into some of the coldest and most…

Plans for Icy Demonstration Flight South

Plans for Icy Demonstration Flight South

Air New Zealand is planning a demonstration Boeing 767 flight to Antarctica on 5 October, and if all goes well the airline is expected to operate two more chartered flights to “the ice” later…

Flights Back to the Ice

Flights Back to the Ice

Antarctica Sightseeing Flights is offering the first commercial flight from New Zealand to Antarctica – 33 years after the Erebus disaster. The tourism operator will take a chartered Boeing 747 from Auckland to the…

Resetting The Global Compass

Resetting The Global Compass

New Zealand scientists Tony Hurst and Stewart Bennie will travel to Antarctica on 28 December to reset the global compass. The pair, who work for New Zealand’s Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS…

Hope Yet For Happy Feet

Hope Yet For Happy Feet

New Zealand author and entrepreneur Gareth Morgan will join 12 scientists on a 30-day voyage to Antarctica early next year to raise awareness of the importance of the region, and as an “add-on” to…

South Pole Misadventures

South Pole Misadventures

A new book by New Zealand journalist and respected author on Antarctic explorers John Thomson says Edmund Hillary “cheated” his way to the South Pole in 1958. Thomson, author of Climbing the…

Return to Erebus

Return to Erebus

Over 1 relatives of those killed in the Mt Erebus air disaster visited Antarctica yesterday. The flight’s 14 passengers, who were selected by ballot, flew out of Christchurch to attend a memorial for their…

Ozone Hole Shrinkage

Ozone Hole Shrinkage

Auckland-based National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) studies have found that the ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk to the smallest in five years, decreasing about 22 million square kilometres from 24…

Thawing an icy tipple

Thawing an icy tipple

Canterbury Museum is slowly thawing out a crate of Scotch whisky which was found in Antarctica earlier this year beneath the floor of a hut built by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. The New…

Whiskey Windfall

Whiskey Windfall

From the ice outside Shackleton’s Antarctic hut a team from the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust have found three cases of Chas Mackinlay & Co’s whisky and two containing brandy made by…

Butter on Ice

Butter on Ice

The world’s oldest block of butter — believed to have come from the Canterbury Central Co-operative Dairy Company, formed in the 1890s and based in Christchurch — has been found in the stable area…

Revered Geochemist

Revered Geochemist

Port Chalmers-born Smithsonian scientist Brian Harold Mason, who was internationally known for his study of meteorites and moon rocks and who was the first to discover that a rock found in Antarctica came from…

In living memory

In living memory

“Three decades ago, New Zealand was a mass of tears. The country suffered its worst air tragedy ever when, on November 28, 1979, an Air New Zealand plane on a sightseeing flight over Antarctica…

Common Southern Goal

Common Southern Goal

Twizel pilot Kylie Wakelin, 36, is one of eight women skiing to the South Pole in a trek to mark the anniversary of the Commonwealth grouping of 53 former British colonies. Skiing six to…

Anniversary Apology

Anniversary Apology

Air New Zealand will apologise to relatives of the victims of the 1979 Mt Erebus plane crash which killed all 257 on board in Antarctica during a sightseeing flight. Chief executive Rob Fyfe is…

Looking for the Lost

Looking for the Lost

Veteran polar expedition leader New Zealander Rob McCallum is leading the search to find the submerged seaplane wreck which had been carrying Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen to the Arctic island of Spitsbergen in 1928….

Antarcticans Unite

Antarcticans Unite

Nearly every New Zealander, according to American author of The Entire Earth and Sky: Views on Antarctica, Leslie Carol Roberts “has some link to Antarctica – either they had been there, or someone they…

Peak Inspiration

Peak Inspiration

In preparation for a race to the South Pole, adventurer Ben Fogle hits the South Island for some thrill-seeking training. “The country that staged the world’s first commercial bungee jump has invented a whole…

Digging for Gold in Antarctica

Digging for Gold in Antarctica

A team of Victoria and Massey University scientists has been recognised for their development of portable nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology in Antarctica. Massey’s Robin Dykstra, Professor Paul Callaghan of the MacDiarmid Institute, Dr Craig Eccles of Magritek…

Fresh Perspective on Antarctica

Fresh Perspective on Antarctica

A NZ doctoral student and her Dutch counterpart have initiated a radical new program to involve the humanities and social sciences in Antarctic research. Canterbury University’s Daniela Haase and Machiel Lamers of the University of Maastricht launched…

Evolution in an Egg Shell

Evolution in an Egg Shell

Massey University’s David Lambert has published his findings on the microevolution of Antarctica’s Adélie penguins in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lambert’s research shows a marked difference between the genetic make up of modern…

Reaching New Lows

Reaching New Lows

A NZ ship has set a new world record for the southern-most point attained by water. The Spirit of Enderby, a polar research ship exploring NZ and Australia’s sub-Antarctic islands, reached a latitude of 78deg 40min and…

Sir Ed Speaks Out

Sir Ed Speaks Out

Sir Edmund Hillary has spoken out against a US-led project to build an “ice highway” in Antarctica, which would allow hundreds of tons of scientific equipment to be transported to the Amundsen-Scott Base. ” spent weeks…

Antarctic Archives

Antarctic Archives

NZ’s Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences has received international funding to drill more than a kilometre beneath Antarctica in order to gain access to the “untapped record of climate change” held in its sedimentary layers. Otago…

A Toast to the “New Classics”

A Toast to the “New Classics”

British wine writer, John Hunter, educates his readers in the (remarkably brief) history of NZ wine. Urging them to cast aside any lingering associations with Australia – “it’s a darn sight closer to Antarctica” – Hunter recommends…

Antarctic Tribute

Antarctic Tribute

A NZ foundation dedicated to the preservation of early Antarctic exploration is to erect a unique memorial museum to Norwegian explorer Carsten E. Borchgrevink. The UN-backed Global Resource Information Database (GRID) wants to preserve Borchgrevink’s cabin -…

Celebrations on Ice

Celebrations on Ice

NZ and US scientists in Antarctica recently celebrated the centenary of the first midwinter stopover by British explorers. Fun and games included swimming naked in an ice hole and hurling a (frozen) turkey in Scottish Highland-style games….

Giant Icebergs Leave Penguins Stranded

Giant Icebergs Leave Penguins Stranded

NZ scientists involved in penguin dynamics research in Antarctica report on the deaths of hundreds of thousands of baby penguins this summer, caused by the blocking of food routes by giant icebergs.

Royal Chill

Royal Chill

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts, accompanies Britain’s Princess Anne to Antarctica to celebrate the centenary of Scott and Shackleton’s discovery expeditions, and to launch the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust’s 10 year project to conserve…

Shining White Antarctic

Shining White Antarctic

The environmental state of Antarctica’s Ross Sea region is in pristine condition – “exceptionally so by global standards” – according to a new report from the New Zealand Antarctic Institute. However the reports also points out “significant…

RNZAF to the Rescue

RNZAF to the Rescue

The Royal New Zealand Air Force wings its way to Antarctica to rescue sick workers.  

Cold Daring

Cold Daring

What better guide through the frozen continent that “a New Zealander who, in younger days, had driven motorcycles across the ice pack and sampled the 80-year-old cocoa from the stores left in the hut of the…

Oil and Ice

Oil and Ice

New Zealand micro-biologist Jackie Aislabie is working on an international effort to fight oil-slicks in pristine Antarctica.

Wild Scent

Wild Scent

Three New Zealand men kayaking across Antarctica have been chased by a leopard seal, run into a humpback whale and they’re starting to smell like penguins.

Ice and Cannibals

Ice and Cannibals

Alan Gurney details three mid-nineteenth century voyages to Antarctica. Included is a “grisly description by a New Zealand missionary of the cannibalistic Maoris’ method of creating shrunken human heads.”

So Far – So Good

So Far – So Good

The discerning readers of the Guardian and Observer have voted New Zealand as their favourite long-haul travel destination. “It is the Caribbean and the English countryside, Antarctica and California, Sydney and Gleneagles all rolled into one….