Character: a grumpy diesel mechanic
Line of dialogue: has anybody seen my chicken?
Sound effect: siren
Prop: mop
Prop: bottle of mouthwash

Every year the international bases of Antarctica are invited to take part in the 48 hour film festival; a continent-wide effort at movie-making!

Last weekend we received the list of elements above, and everyone on base discussed story-lines to incorporate them. We wrangled for hours on whether we wanted something cute and quirky, or a zombie-killing horror! Finally, we hit upon the idea of doing a spoof of Big Brother, the reality TV show in which contestants are locked together in a house and vote against each other for eviction. Jane and I pulled together a loose script and the rest was ad-libbed by the base members-cum-actors!

Lex, our mechanic, being interviewed by a trashy TV presenter - me! © ANTNZ, S Lillicrap

Now all the films from the other Antarctic bases, such as Poland, Germany, Japan and India have been shared and voting has begun! Efforts varied widely from the brave to the baffling to the utterly brilliant! The Norwegian station, Troll, filmed theirs outside in a tent with explosively high winds; the UK’s base at Rothera involved a funny James Bond-style plot with an evil megalomaniac called ‘Dr Meltdown’; and the French contribution from Dumont D’Urville centered around a time-machine and a lost chicken.

The end of our film - Lex’s grand exit through the icy fog. He needed a warm cup of tea afterwards. © ANTNZ, S Lillicrap

All agree that Scott Base has done a grand job - but - will we win? Either way, we’re just pleased to have cut a dash on the Antarctic movie-making circuit and to bask in our 5 minutes of filmic fame!

Last week I conserved a small cardboard box filled with little gas canisters that were for use in a soda siphon to make sparkling water. Both Sir Ernest Shackleton and Captain Scott took soda siphons with them on their expeditions, and a couple can be seen on the table in the picture of Scott’s birthday celebration in 1911.

The box of soda siphon bulbs which are still all in good condition and filled with compressed gas © Antarctic Heritage Trust

The sparkling water would have been used as a mixer for spirits, and this seems very apt in the week when a whisky crate excavated this summer from under the floor boards of Shackleton’s 1908 hut at Cape Royds was put on display at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch. The crate was kept frozen while it was flown from Antarctica to New Zealand, then immediately placed in a freezer, and it’s now slowly being thawed so that conservators can open it up and examine the contents.

Captain Scott’s birthday dinner at Cape Evans, June 6th 1911. Among the bottles, jugs and glasses are two soda siphons at the far end of the table. © Herbert Ponting / SPRI

We were very lucky to see the crates at Cape Royds when we first arrived in February, and have recently been following progress at Canterbury Museum through the blog on their website which is updated every day.

Three crates of whisky and two of brandy being stored at Cape Royds after excavation from under the hut this summer © Antarctic Heritage Trust

Today we’ve learnt that the ice has sufficiently melted for Lizzie and Sasha to remove the lid and for the first time the top of a bottle in its straw wrapper can be seen. I can’t wait to see what the bottles look like, and if there is still some whisky inside.

Where ever you are on Ross Island you are always aware of the active volcano Mount Erebus sitting on the skyline topped by a plume of smoke. Erebus, and Mount Terror, the extinct volcano next to it, were named after the ships of Captain James Clark Ross, the first explorer to sail into McMurdo Sound in 1841.

Erebus veiled in cloud in April with the plume of fumes above the crater © AHT / N Dunn

From Scott Base Erebus looks serene, as if you could stroll up to the summit in an afternoon, but it’s actually 20 miles away and its slopes covered with crevasses and hazardous ice fields. Men from Shackleton’s 1907-09 expedition were the first to climb Erebus in 1908, taking 5 days. Now the crater is reached during the summer season by helicopter, which takes scientists up to carry out research on volcanic activity, the lava lake and the toxic fumes - carbon dioxide, chlorine and sulphur dioxide that it pumps out.

The effects of Erebus on the local weather patterns were a constant source of interest for Dr Simpson, the meteorologist on Captain Scott’s 1910 Expedition. Here orographic clouds circle the cone. © AHT / N Dunn

Erebus is constantly changing, reflecting the weather and seasons. As the sun disappeared we saw it silhouetted against a sky turning from blue to pink to rich red and finally filled with stars and auroras. But over the last week the sky behind Erebus has gradually been lightening and a faint apricot glow now indicates that with Midwinter over we are heading back towards the first sun-rise on 19th August.

The sun below the horizon is beginning to lighten the sky behind Erebus © AHT / N Dunn

After a week of record-breaking cold temperatures, it’s hard to believe that the members of Captain Scott’s (1910-1913) expedition would be out fishing in the middle of an Antarctic winter. But, every copy of a British Antarctic Expedition (B.A.E.) journal in the library at Scott Base (New Zealand’s Antarctic base) suggests this is what they were doing. It interested Dr. Edward Atkinson in particular, as he was the scientist charged with studying parasites and bacteria. While occasionally they did eat the fish, they mostly wanted to advance polar scientific study (and I get the impression the fish didn’t taste that good anyway!).

What is puzzling is how they actually caught the fish. The only hints I’ve found indicate they used a trap made of wire netting. Well, I have no trap here in the lab, but I do have a tin of fish hooks. Hundreds and hundreds of fish hooks – and not one journal reference! Oh well…

Tin of fish hooks before treatment © AHT / M Bell

Regardless, it was very satisfying to treat the artefact by separating the hooks from their semi-concreted mass. As a bonus, this lead to the discovery of a rather cool little lure hidden in its centre. And, in treating the tin of fish hooks we did learn a bit about the early explorers’ choice of ‘sweeties’. In the long tradition of Antarctic thriftiness, they used a ‘Rowntree’s Clear Gums’ tin to keep the hooks in!

Tin of fish hooks, after treatment, with silver-coloured fish-shaped lure sitting on top © AHT / M Bell

Herbert Ponting, the official photographer for Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, preferred working with glass plate negatives for their superior image quality – even though photographic film had been in popular use for at least 20 years. The glass plate negatives we are conserving from the darkroom are of different types, and from different companies around the world such as London, France, Sydney and Wellington. Nearly half are by the ‘Paget Prize Plate Company’ which was based in Watford, UK, and happens to be my home town! The company was only in existence for a short time so these packages are very rare indeed!

A selection of glass plate negatives by Paget Prize Plate Company © AHT / G Whiteley

The vast majority of Ponting’s surviving works are in black and white, but the collection shows that he clearly wanted to experiment with colour. There are over 30 packages of colour plates but it seems this process proved too technically challenging for the environment with only a few colour photos ever being published. The processed plates returned to England with Ponting, so the remaining packages and boxes in the hut are unopened – perhaps abandoned as the most unworkable.

3 packages of plates stuck together with mould, before treatment © AHT / G Whiteley

3 packages of plates after treatment © AHT / G Whiteley

Water damage over the years has left these plates in poor condition. Even for Ponting spoilage was a persistent problem. In his biography he describes how he had so many plates he had to store them outside in the snow and then carefully bring them into the hut when needed. This was done gradually as the change in humidity and temperature could damage the sensitive gelatine coating.

Herbert Ponting in the Dark Room, Cape Evans circa 1911 © Ponting / Alexander Turnbull Library

Ponting’s darkroom has been relatively untouched over the years and so provides an intriguing time capsule (or should that be snapshot!) into the working processes of this early Antarctic ‘camera artist’.

At midday Bobbie and I meet at the back door dressed in hats, face masks and goggles. Turning on our head torches and radioing through our intentions, we head out for our daily walk along the snow-covered path which climbs up the hill at the back of Scott Base.

Scott Base from the top of the hill in late April, with the path winding down the slope © AHT / N Dunn

A century ago Captain Scott advocated the physical and mental benefits of regular outdoor exercise during the dark winter months, encouraging the men to take some form after lunch. In his diary he wrote ‘the majority of people seem anxious to get exercise, but one or two like the fire better’. In particular it was difficult to get the photographer Ponting out of the hut and Atkinson ‘only managed by dragging him out to his own work, digging holes in the ice’.

Nicola at the top of the hill in June with Scott Base in the background © Steven Sun / ANTNZ

We started our walks at the beginning of winter as a way of getting some fresh air and to experience the changes in the landscape over the months. And we’ve certainly seen some changes. From the top of the hill the base was first surrounded by pink ice, then gradually the lights began to go on and sometimes it would fade in the blowing snow.

A moonlit Scott Base in June © N Dunn / AHT

Several times the weather has been too bad to go out, and on occasions the dark and the sound of the wind have been less than appealing, but once out we always return reinvigorated.

We are immersed in a Condition 1* storm today. The wind is howling and the building is shaking. We are confined to Base because of the extreme cold and lack of visibility.

In 1970 similar weather caused a US Navy plane to make an emergency landing. The weather came in from the south, just like today, and the pilots could not make out the runway on the Ross Ice Shelf because of zero visibility. They were beyond the point at which they could turn around or find an alternative landing place. All 80 passengers were uninjured but the plane was badly damaged.

Last Sunday the weather was much better; -25°C and just 10 knots of wind. A group of us drove out to see the plane which has since given its name to the Pegasus Air Field.

Group photo on the tail of the Pegasus. From left to right: Alf, Bobbie, Georgina, Jane. Front: Hayden, Steven © Steven Sun

Steven, Jane and the graffiti on the plane © Steven Sun

Playing with long exposures on the camera in front of the plane © Steven Sun

In keeping with ensuring the continent is kept as pristine as possible, the plane is to be removed this year and work has already begun to collect the debris around it.

I drove us home in the Hagglund - my first time driving one. I switched the lights off to see if I could drive in whiteout conditions using just the satellite navigation. Unfortunately, despite the ice shelf being a big, open, flat area, we thought it best to switch the lights back on!

*Condition 1 is defined as visibility less that 30m or sustained winds over 100 km/h or windchill lower than minus 73°C.

We’re here for just about seven months all told, living in Antarctica at New Zealand’s Scott Base and working to conserve artefacts from Captain Scott’s Terra Nova expedition hut at Cape Evans. Ever wondered what effect all of this has on the Antarctic environment? You’ll be pleased to know that Antarctica New Zealand has a well-developed plan that directs our activities on ice, with a very clear aim to minimize the environmental impact of our presence here in the Antarctic.

So how does this translate into action? As it is winter, we don’t get out in the field much these days but there are many things we can do around base. Wind turbines are working away to generate energy and reduce our fossil fuel consumption but it still makes sense to turn off the lights when we leave the room. Showers are kept short to conserve water, and everyone makes proper use of the recycling system, developed to sort and prepare waste for return to New Zealand.

Disposing of food waste, separated for collection and transportation back to New Zealand © Antarctica New Zealand / Steven Sun

Waste water and sewage are processed properly in our on-base treatment plant. Energy efficient light bulbs are everywhere, including in the photographic set-up in our conservation lab. All these positive actions mean we’re doing our part to keep the Antarctic environment happy and healthy.

Nicola documents an artefact - the bulbs in our photographic lights are energy efficient © Antarctic Heritage Trust / M Bell

I’m always surprised at the similarities between our Antarctic lives and the experiences of the men on the expeditions 100 years ago. But the day after Midwinter with the temperature at -25°C we took part in a Scott Base tradition for which there seems to be no comparison – the polar plunge.

Mechanic Lex begins to cut the polar plunge hole with a chain saw © Matt Morley

This is when we cut a hole in the sea ice, put on safety harnesses and take it in turns to jump into the icy 1.7°C waters of the Ross Sea. As I plunged through the floating slush of ice and saw the dark blue-green waters around me, the cold instantly numbed my skin and fingers, and I forgot how to breathe. For a split second there was a wonderfully thrilling feeling of being in the unknown … and so I did it again!

‘Super Science Man’, Science Technician Steven Sun, prepares for his polar plunge © Don Duke/USAP

Bobbie takes the plunge whilst Tom holds her harness © Don Duke/USAP

Followed up with saunas and hot showers we shared video clips of our plunges – some did it wearing just shoes, some in fancy dress or bikinis; some made a big splash and others dipped a toe in the water then elegantly slid in without getting their hair wet!

Later I remembered that the only time the members of the expeditions had dipped into the water was by accident, putting a leg through the tide-crack, or falling through thin broken sea ice, some never to be seen again.

Why do we do it? Maybe it’s because we all appreciate experiencing the extremes of the Antarctic environment - provided there’s a warm sauna to run to afterwards!

Yesterday I had a very special day. A four man team from the American Antarctic Research Station McMurdo and New Zealand’s Scott Base were going on a scientific field trip in a five-seater Hagglund vehicle – a Swedish-built snow tank. They offered the remaining seat to the Antarctic Heritage Trust as the trip aimed to reach Captain Scott’s hut at Cape Evans. After drawing names from a hat, I found myself lucky enough to be packing my ECWs (extreme cold weather gear).

From left to right: Steven, Science technician; Georgina, AHT conservator; Matt, carpenter; John, the man with the drill from McMurdo; Tom, Field Support and Base Manager © S. Sun/Antarctica New Zealand

We travelled out across the ice field, an area of the frozen Ross Sea, winding our way carefully along a marked route using GPS, avoiding known areas of thin ice and tide-cracks. The weather began to deteriorate, and as the wind whipped up flurries of ice and snow around our vehicle we lost visibility.

Contacting the weather people at McMurdo via radio, the forecast was grim, and so we decided against pushing on to Cape Evans, instead setting up the scientific recording equipment where we were. Two test holes were drilled, showing the ice to be a suitable 1.5m thick and then we erected a probe to measure the rate and extent of the growing sea ice which will stay in place for a year.

The newly-erected probe, set up to measure growth of sea-ice over a year. The black box is a recording device. © S. Sun/Antarctica New Zealand

But the weather here is fickle and instead of the predicted blizzard, the wind died down as soon as we began work and everything became perfectly still. It was quite extraordinary being in such an expanse of moonlit ice, and after so many months in the comfort of Scott Base, it impressed on me again what an eerily beautiful and quite desolate place Antarctica can be.

Panoramic view with Mt Erebus and Hagglund © Tom Arnold/Antarctica New Zealand