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. “[Sir Edmund] spent weeks battling against the elements to get to the pole, and it was an enormous achievement. Now you’ve got the concept of a marked route that takes away the challenge and the adventure of getting there, and that is anathema to [him],” said Foreign Minister Phil Goff, who accompanied Hillary to Antarctica to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Erebus disaster. NZ has joined the 29 other Antarctic signatories in sanctioning the project as ecologically sound.