Antarctic Report

From the Wellington High team teacher, Mark Sweeney:

On the 25th of January the winners of the Freemasons Big Science Video competition, met up again for the location shoot of a lifetime.  The party consisted of former Wellington High students Josh, Joe and Hannah, their film mentor Sonya, graduate from Otago’s natural history film programme, and myself. 

Antarctica, the coldest, driest, most remote continent in the world.   After going through the check-in, expectations were higher than the flight was going to be; it was cancelled due to fog over the Antarctic runway.  The next day we were to try again, and this time the American C17 Globemaster took off with a huge payload of cargo and 70 personnel, including 16 kiwis.   The landing was the smoothest I’ve ever experienced, perhaps all runways should be made out of this..... ice.  

Leaving the fluorescent belly of the plane/spaceship we stepped onto a new planet, on our planet.  The glare seemed a suitable transition, a threshold had to be crossed.  There was none of the usual airport structures and protocol.  People were standing everywhere, this was the only plane, and it was an event.  Strange vehicles were parked free from the rigid confines of barriers and road markings.  

The Ross ice shelf, larger than France but not boastful, not unlike Sir Ed who was tucked up in a transporter waiting to go back on the plane we came down on.  Fifty years ago he was here, and 50 seconds ago we arrived.  Although, even one minute in a timeless place counts for something. 

Friendly Americans ushered us kiwis to our big tyred moon vehicle.  Scott Base was a 40 minute drive.  We shared the same white road as an ice breaker on the horizon, a smoking Mt Erebus loomed.  On arrival at the base it was great Scott .... base.  

Before long we were eating like famous adventurers returned from a famous adventure.  Our Big Science Adventure had truly begun.   Scott Base was quintessentially kiwi, practical, comfortable and friendly.  In fact, it was so familiar and relaxed that you could almost forget you were in Antarctica, that is, until you looked out of the window. 

The next morning we were straight into it with safety training.  The afternoon was spent preparing for the most extreme EOTC (education outside the classroom) field trip.   Our event had already been kitted out and it was up to us to double check, practise erecting tents, and modify the menu. 
Our guide was very thorough.  In this kind of  environment there is no room  for error.
 
Fully equipped and wearing our ECW (extreme cold weather) gear, we left the comfort of Scott Base and climbed aboard the helicopter which was to take us to the scientific focus for our trip, Bratina Island, and the three scientists who were working there.  Flying low over the Ross Ice shelf it was hard to believe that this journey all started in a classroom in Wellington almost a year ago.

Only 2% of Antarctica is ice free in summer and Bratina Island was one such place.  Like all the science covered in the Big Science videos, it started with the scientists involved, sharing their passion for their subjects.  Over the two days and nights (although there was no night) that we were there, we came to understand how important the Antarctic Environment was to study. 

Bratina island and the glacial moraines surrounding it have been studied by University of Canterbury post graduate students and scientists for over twenty years.  Brian, Briar and Donna guided us around their life-sized laboratory and revealed some of the secrets to the many and varied ponds.  Each pond had its own name, and different concentrations of chemicals and algae, and gave an insight into the very beginnings of life on this planet. 

The students helped Sonya, the film mentor, get the scientists’ story on video.  We ate very well in the field and there was very little need to supplement the tasty supplies with more packs of chocolate, although this was done.  Sleep required eye coverings as the orange tents tended to glow in the antarctic night sun.  On return to Scott Base there was just enough time to wash and kit out again for the next leg of our big science adventure. 

This time the form of transport was going to be much less mechanical,..... us! For some reason we had all agreed with our guides suggestion that we man-haul all our gear the five km out to the field training site.  A large sled soon materialised, and we were to be the huskies. 

This was how Scott got to the pole, and while there is, thankfully, no comparison in trips, it did give us a sense of what it was like to work as a team striding out towards the vast white horizon.  We worked up quite a sweat, and upon arrival, the younger ones of our party set about sweating some more.  For three hours they dug, carved and sculpted an ice cave, only stopping upon completion. 

That night, five feet bellow the surface of the ice, the big science adventurers slept soundly after a day like no other.  The next day was spent man-hauling it back to base, cleaning and returning gear and enjoying the luxury.  From here on in it was short walks and excursions over the hill to McMurdo, or Mac Town, the American base.  

There we met Dave, the head of the American National Science Foundation (NSF) who administer the Antarctic operation.  Dave took us on a personal tour and shared some of his forty years of Antarctic experience with us.  The highlight was the tour of the laboratory complex which rivals anything in the southern hemisphere. 

We watched a live video feed of lava explosions from the crater edge of Mt Erebus, and looked in awe at bizarre marine life in tanks and machines that went ping. 

New Zealand’s science, while on a much more modest scale, was still impressive.  We travelled to a newly opened facility at Arrival Heights which was the centre for cutting edge climate research. 

Later, we stepped back in time with a tour of Scott’s Discovery Hut.  The hut is at the edge of the bay where McMurdo is situated, and quite a contrast to the mechanised 21st century scale of the base.  It is testament to the age of exploration where many, including Scott, lost their lives.  The hut contains the original supplies from the early 20th century and includes seal meat, and sides of mutton, preserved by the cold and dry air. 

Crosses on points and hills around McMurdo are a sobering reminder of how inhospitable this beautiful place can be.  A climb to the cross on Observation Hill, to view the vantage point that Scott’s men used to scan the horizon for his return from the pole in 1912, reinforced the shear scale of the environment.  Joining the cross on the hill was a Tibetan prayer flag fluttering in the breeze.

On our last evening we organised a screening of all the finalists’ videos for Big Science Adventures 2006.  The students introduced the documentaries to nearly a third of Scott Base who stayed to watch every one.  Naturally, they thought our one was the best, thus vindicating the judges decision.  On the morning we were to leave we awoke to the good news that the flight had been delayed seven hours.  This gave us the chance to make up for the lost day at the start. 

A pod of whales had been sited in the channel which had recently been cleared by the ice breaker.  Peering intently from the shore we could see plumes of steam as they exhaled and could make out the form of minke whales.  A few hours later we were carefully guided over the sea ice to look at seals basking in the -10 degree heat.  As it was late in the season, the sea ice had become thin in places and we walked in single file as our guide, Paula, prodded the ice to check thickness. 

Like most wildlife in Antarctica, the seals were unconcerned with our presence and occasionally yawned in our direction.  Being out on the sea ice was spectacular, especially the pressure ridges which are formed where the sea ice meets the land.  Unfortunately, unlike the Inuit, we did no have a special vocabulary for ice and snow, wow and cool would have to suffice.

It was only a week, but what a week.  On returning to NZ it seemed like a dream, except, one backed up by photos, facts and figures.  For a continent that is off most maps, Antarctica now is real for all of us.