Magnificent icebound continent
 Antarctica is like nowhere else on earth - according to the CIA Factbook, it is the coldest, windiest, highest (on average), and driest continent. Bathed in 24-hour sunshine during summer, it has captured the hearts and minds of New Zealanders since the early part of last century when ice explorers passed through our ports on their way to the ice. Ninety-nine years ago to the day, explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition left Lyttelton on the Terra Nova. His memorial statue, sculpted by his widow Kathleen, still resides on Worcester Boulevard.
The Christchurch connection has been strengthened over the years after the establishment of New Zealand’s Scott Base in 1957 and the exploits of New Zealand’s most famous adventurer Edmund Hillary. In 1958 the Commonwealth Trans Antarctic Expedition, led by Vivian Fuchs, with Sir Edmund Hillary, achieved Sir Ernest Shackleton’s goal of crossing the entire Antarctic continent. Hillary’s tractor and Fuchs’ snow cat are displayed at the Canterbury Museum. Scott Base is located in the Ross Dependency, which New Zealand has administered since 1923.
How the ice changed one man’s life
 Henry Sunderland is well-known in Canterbury as a gnomologist, artist and tutor. Less well known is the fact that thirty years ago Henry spent a summer on the ice in as a mess cook, occasional cartoonist and part-time cod fisher. In a personal account, Henry tells how the Antarctic changed his life and how he delivered the first gnome to the South Pole in 1977. Accompanying the article is a copy of one of the cartoons that Henry drew for the McMurdo Sometimes, the newspaper for personnel on the ice and an award-winning photo of an Antarctic bach.
Erebus: New Zealand’s single biggest tragedy
 With a greater loss of life than the 1931 Napier earthquake, the air crash at Mt Erebus in Antarctica on November 28, 1979 is New Zealand’s worst disaster. 257 people died in the crash, 237 passengers and 20 crew. While the families mourned their dead, debate raged over who or what was to blame for the crash. Initially, in 1980, pilot error was identified as the cause. However, a Royal Commission of Inquiry conducted by Justice Peter Mahon found in May 1981 that no crew were to blame. Instead he pin-pointed navigation systems and issued stinging criticism of Air New Zealand management, saying they aimed to scuttle the investigation through an ‘an orchestrated litany of lies’. In 1984 Mahon released a book on Erebus. The registration of the crashed plane, ZK-NZP, has not been reissued.
Resource of the week: Grolier Online
The detailed reference material available in Grolier online is based on the text of the Academic American Encyclopedia, New Book of Popular Science and Lands and People. It includes a substantial article on Antarctica, covering topography, geology, wildlife and many other areas of interest. Maps, photographs, multimedia and links to a wide range of related reading material.
See: Siniff, Donald B., Robert F. Black, and Robert F. Black. "Antarctica." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online (accessed November 21, 2007).
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Antarctica history
