So here I am on a beautiful sunny day in New Zealand and recently I was in Antarctica for
six weeks with a science team. So I was embedded with this science team, I was allowed to explore
and I learned all about the science but also about life and Antarctica and the whole environment.
So here are the 10 highlights I experienced of my time in Antarctica:
Highlight Number One: the Flight South.
So we flew down to the ice from Christchurch New Zealand
and it's an impressive experience flying in a huge military plane.
But above all the views looking down to the unfolding icy wilderness of Antarctica are
mesmerizing. The landscape down there is totally devoid of human structures or roads or houses.
You can see no sign of life - a truly empty wilderness. There are mountain ranges, glaciers,
frozen ocean and eventually Ross Island as we neared our landing field on the McMurdo Ice Shelf.
Arriving on the ice shelf landing field feels like the threshold of a very different world.
Highlight Number Two: Scott Base. Scott Base is a small outpost on the edge of Ross Island.
It is the New Zealand base and it can cater for a maximum of about 90 people at a time. It's a
staging point for many science Expeditions that go from there deeper into the Antarctic landscape.
So once they're organized they fly or drive out to their field sites either on Ross
Island or on the ice shelf somewhere or in the Transantarctic Mountains.
Scott Base is an experience all of its own. You're looked after by a dedicated,
high functioning group of people who look after the infrastructure, the machinery, the food,
the domestic services, the field equipment and your safety while down on the Ice. Whilst at the
base you can venture out for various walks, you can go mountain biking and cross-country skiing
or you can visit the much larger U.S McMurdo Station which is just about three kilometres away,
Highlight Number Three: the Team. So science expeditions to Antarctica are very few due to
the cost and logistics of traveling there and undertaking field work in such a remote and
difficult environment. So science teams are usually very small groups of people each with
different skills or research specializations. You're bunched together in a close-knit group
for weeks at a time and so you get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses quickly and
intensely. There is a strong sense of shared privilege and awe at being able to participate
in such a life-changing experience even from people who've been there many times before.
Highlight Number Four: the Camp. The personal gear and the camp equipment is super rugged as
you would expect as it has to keep you warm in extreme low temperatures and high winds.
So apart from being tough for wear and tear the principle of layering is key. So with your
clothing you add or take away layers to adjust to the fluctuations of temperature through the day.
Because the equipment is so good you can easily overheat when at work but also you can get cold
really quickly for example if you have to take your gloves off to do a fiddly task,
or if some of your face is exposed when you're traveling on a skidoo.
Highlight Number Five: the Science Research. Our research project was led by Andrew Martin
of Victoria University of Wellington, Te Heranga Waka. We were investigating the
microbiology of rhodopsin proteins that form part of the cell membranes in sea ice bacteria.
These proteins have the ability to use energy from sunlight in a way that is quite new to
science and part of our research was to alter the light conditions in the sea ice to find
out how these rhodopsin bearing bacteria adapted to the different light wavelengths.
We were also camped near to two other science teams. One of them was using a
special drill to extract the very delicate platelet ice crystals from the base of the
sea ice without damaging their fragile physical structure. The other project was
using drones to image the thermal properties and reflectivity or Albedo of snow on the sea ice.
It also included close-up studies of the snow that had built up on the surface of the sea ice.
Highlight Number Six: Sea Ice. Up to 18 million square kilometres of the ocean around Antarctica
freezes and then melts every year. This sea ice develops to about one or two metres thick. It
is actually quite variable and not all of it melts, so that some of it is multi-year ice.
The process of sea ice formation goes through several stages starting as tiny
separate crystals which increase in size and quantity. They eventually form pancake
ice - lots of separate discs that jostle together and gradually dampen down the waves. Eventually
they all join up and a flat uniform sheet of the ice develops. The weather conditions such
as air and ocean temperature, the wind and ocean currents all affect the rate of ice
formation. Another thing to note is that as sea water freezes it squeezes out the salt which
becomes concentrated brine at the base of the sea ice as well as in channels trapped within it.
Platelet ice sometimes accumulates on the bottom of the sea ice. It is made of lots of
very thin crystals that float up against the sea ice to make a complex mesh of crystals.
Highlight Number Seven: The Wildlife. There is not much wildlife at all in the depths of
Antarctica but here in the coastal regions such as at McMurdo Sound there are seals penguins
and skewers which are a type of scavenging seabird and these survive on the marine food
chain starting with the microbial life and then small fish in the sea ice and water.
Around Scott Base the Weddel seals are the most obvious large animals and they
are easily seen and photographed just outside the base. Penguin colonies occur a bit of a
distance away and occasional traveling penguins turn up near to the base too.
Highlight Number Eight: the Geology.
Scott Base is on a peninsula on Ross Island. So Ross Island is part of a complex of peaks around
Mount Erebus, the world's southernmost active volcano. It is separated from the mainland of
Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains by McMurdo Sound. Scott Base is built on a
lava flow that erupted from nearby Crater Hill a few hundred thousand years ago. Apart from the
volcanic landforms and rocks there are interesting craters and glacial features in the area.
Highlight Number Nine: the History. The Discovery Hut beside McMurdo Station was
the starting point for Captain Scott's first attempt on the South Pole in 1902 to 1903.
He was accompanied by Shackleton and after this Expedition they were never friends again.
There are two more huts from that Heroic Era of Exploration, at Cape Evans and Cape Royds. So
the area is steeped in epic Antarctic history and these Huts are some of the most atmospheric places
you can imagine. They still contain equipment from when they were last lived in, including tools,
clothes, seal blubber and food well over a hundred years old. I had the good fortune
to be guided through the Discovery Hut by Lizzie Meek who works for the Antarctic Heritage Trust
and spends a lot of time in Antarctica helping to conserve the many artifacts in the huts.
Highlight Number Ten: the Spell-binding 24 - 7 Views One of the deepest impressions I'm left with
after my visit to Antarctica is the incredible views across vast spaces to far distant mountains.
The light is ever changing as the sun rotates around the sky for 24 hours a day.
The air is sometimes so clear that you can completely misjudge the distances. The sense of
space, the light and emptiness keeps pulling your eyes up to the distant horizon even when you're
up at two in the morning. Strangely, although there is so much snow and ice and you might think
it would be monotonous, this is not the case. The views remain compelling as the light keeps
changing and they never lose their fascination. So there you have it: 10 highlights from a trip
to Antarctica. Is Antarctica a place that you'd love to go to? If so what do you
think would be your top favorite thing to do with your time down on the ice?