Winter Over Blog #4 2016

Diary from Antarctica Part 4 –monuments, huts, and art

It’s Sunday and my first night staying out at a fuel-heated shipping container on skids out on the ice shelf. It’s romantically called the “square frame” – only because there used to be an “A frame” building there but it was burnt down a few years ago and was replaced by a shipping container building which in typically Kiwi fashion at it was rectangular called square frame (technically should I suppose be “rectangle frame” or “oblong frame.”)

That oblong in the distance is the “square frame” and the inside sort of 1970s style.

Any way it lies around 1-1.25hr walk from Scott Base and is available to book as a sort of ‘get away’ and I hope, time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) again for the next blog. Though discovering that a hot chocolate with Baileys mixed in with it is surprisingly tasty is hampering the thought processes.

Countdown to last sunset late April till mid August

With the temperature dropping and the daylight hours dwindling to 6-7  hours/day (and decreasing fast), each time I have gone outside for a walk in -35C or at night (in search of the first look at auroras) I spend some time trying to reflect on what it would have been like to be here as one of the first explorers in late 1800 and early 1900s. Very different clothing to today (though still hard to beat the fur lining and merino wool) and from the tins that line the shelves, the food was very different.

The fare of yester year – mutton chops or  ------------------------------seal meat?

I am sweating in my thermal layers even at -30Cs and it’s a work in progress on getting to some suitable arrangement with the goggles – they fog up or frost over, so either spend my time walking and blowing expelled air up into my eyes and nose looking no doubt like some groper or guppy fish- or pulling the hood down and the balaclava up and removing goggles which is fine with wind at your back but face on to the wind need to keep monitoring so that eyelashes don’t freeze together. I wish I had bought my own good antifog goggles with me.

I wonder what it will be like in the next Century – may be global warming will see no ice shelf at all, the Scott Base and McMurdo buildings an underwater Atlantis  and any people traveling around on solar thermally encased hover-board /jet ski type arrangements or maybe just teleporting from spot to spot?

But I digress back to the first explorers and what it would have been like to sight the volcanic activity, discover the dry valleys and pick up rocks containing fossils of beech leaves imbedded in it that indicated that Antarctica used to be a much warmer and greener spot. That would have been amazing but from what have read about the various expeditions certainly would not have signed up for any expeditions under Scott’s leadership. I mean the dude was still pulling a sled that contained 35 lbs of rocks samples collected en-route when the group he was leading died. Seriously did he think he were going to “go off” ,“rot away” if they had just cached them?

Discovery Hut with McMurdo, the USA base in background

Only one of the historic huts- Discovery Hut is within easy access from Scott Base – in fact was surprised to see it within spitting distance (no sorry retract that – as no spitting allowed ) or a stone’s throw (oops no not allowed to displace stones in the environment) to Mc Murdo Station. Despite the irony of a substantial rock quarry at McMurdo which is regularly mined for roading,it is close to McMurdo as the photos show.

Discovery Hut, according the booklet, was built based on Australian outback design with eaves on the. eranda low enough for even me to bang my head. A dead seal carcass remains at by the door (not a great looking appetiser) with the remnants of hay (for horses). As you enter- I struggled to understand the rationale of bringing ponies down to a place where there is no food for them and clearly was always going to be a one way trip for these animals and a lot of hay to cart.

Discovery hut outside and in with some “past used by date” products and old hay bales

Just past the hay bales, hang sheep carcasses, then into the main area of the building – sort of a square within a square design. Great to look at the old tins of products like Bovril, and crackers, old trouser hanging up. They didn’t really use this building to live in as it proved too cold so they used their ship and Discovery Hut was mainly used for storage, scientific work and as a recreation /entertainment venue.

On a wee knob nearby (200m) is Vince’s cross, this is a cross to a George Vince who died nearby in 1902.

Then on a tangent path near to Discovery Hut stands Roll Cage Mary – a monument to a Richard Williams who died in 1956 when the tractor he was driving broke through the sea ice and plunged 350 fathoms in to McMurdo Sound.

At McMurdo (spell check keeps on saying McMuddo – which according to an article in 1957 – it had as a nick name at that time). More a sort of McMuddle today with its scattering of multi-coloured building, wires, plant and pipes crisscrossing everywhere.

McMurdo is not a scenic attraction but there are some things that I have put into monument status,

like the Chapel of the Snows which looks great on its own and has a peaceful serenity fitting for a place of worship.

Other bits and pieces like the orca sculpture and just think if all stop signs looked like this worth stopping just to check it out (so mission accomplished).

McMurdo lies under the shadow of Observation Hill. On top of this hill lies another cross. A memorial to the party that perished on the fateful Scott expedition in 1912.

From observation hill you see the platform at the base of the hill where a US nuclear power station existed briefly from 1962 to 1967- yep it’s true! I wonder if you could, in the words of previous NZ prime minister “smell the uranium on the breath” of the Kiwis returning from Scott Base during that time?

 The remnants of the 1960s US nuclear power station and one of the 3 sisters (not sure if they are individually named )

Also from Ob hill looking toward Scott Base is a more modern working monument of the 3 sisters – the wind turbines run by NZ that feed into the Ross Island power grid. It supplies some of the electrical power into both Scott Base and McMurdo.  Whether they are an eyesore or an icon is very much in the eye of the beholder.

Closer to Scott Base is a much newer monument to the Erebus plane crash – I happened to see a documentary just prior to departing for Antarctica on the police that were sent to recover the bodies.

Very poignant and the koru curl (which is what I presume it is) stands just above Scott Base and accessible to any of the relatives who have made a pilgrimage to Antarctica and has Mt Erebus in clear sight from this vantage point. It is simple but distinctly Kiwi reminder of those who had gone on a flight of a lifetime never to return. Though Mt Erebus itself is a pretty powerful image for reflection.

So what else is of note around Scott Base? Certainly neater dressed lime green (apparently called Chelsea Green) buildings. Despite not being surrounded by green vegetation (at least not yet!) it does blend in surprisingly well. But the AA sign man needs to come down as the sign to Scott Base does not in-fact point to Scott Base but misses the mark by indicating some 15 -20 degrees away from the base.

An off direction AA sign - ----stone hinge-------and meters (though no meter maid has been sighted) but does look like a road rage victim.

There is stone henge – which are a collection of concrete barriers but they look like a mini stone henge.

There is Rangi the powhenua with a wooden face at its feet and a carved dude staring up at the sky. I like the guy, always around to check out the auroras and the stars. Like myself needs some Botox to fill in cracks and does rather look like he has been to some dodgy plastic surgeon for butt cheek enhancement. Anyway he’s cool (very cool at times) and feels like he is a protective talisman.

Around to beach front property, the TAE hut built in 1957,  the start of the new era (post WW2) of research down in Antarctica. The milk is still out and no junk mail has been delivered. “A dream come true” a letterbox with no junk mail request that has actually got no junk mail and the good old fashioned milk bottle. (Oh the memories!) .

Here is a preview of 1957- 1960 décor and TAE hut.

Got to love that carpet, and the bath and wonder what the story is behind the Wellington Council “do not spit “sign?

Then moving on to the Ross Ice Shelf. Around 1hrs drive away is Pegasus airfield where the wheeled planes land – named after the Pegasus plane that crashed there -a few decades ago and now - and remains as part of the local scenery.

Beach front ice shelf picnic with a plane.

The very best attractions though are not man made. The snow crystals, the colour and 3d texture of the blue sea ice, the sunrise and sunsets and the Mt Erebus with its wisp of smoke reminding that it is an active volcano. But that is a story for the next blog.

Frost flowers

Cheers,

Vonny