Antarctica East 2026

January 26: Antipodes Island

Today we are visiting the Antipodes Islands….a group of islands which Scenic has never visited before. The islands are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic  waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand.They are the most southeastern point of land in the world outside of Antarctica

We were hoping to do a zodiac cruise around the island but conditions were too perilous so we observed it from afar

Have learnt a lot about the various expeditions to the South Pole, but wanted to share a bit about Scott’s northern party which was a side expedition to Scott’s attempt to reach the South Pole. To get funding to go back to the South Pole, Scott had to develop some science proposals which would offer more than just making it to the pole. So the northern party planned to spend 6 weeks exploring the glaciers of the area collecting rock samples, surveying and  recording their findings as they went. The ship was meant to collect them at the end of summer but it didn’t come back because heavy pack ice had prevented it from approaching close to shore. So the 6 members of the northern party were left to fend for themselves. 

They had limited rations, lightweight summer clothing and lightweight tents, so they began to take steps to address the developing situation. Firstly food rations were cut drastically to make them last until late August, realistically the earliest date that the men could set off to walk the 200 miles back to base. At the end of the February, they moved to an island they later named “Inexpressible Island” as a name that summed up their feelings about the winter they spent there. 

All six men were involved in taking 24 hour meteorological observations, but they had difficulty getting up in the 24 hour darkness, so one of them devised an ingenious makeshift alarm clock.  

And this makeshift alarm clock reminded me of the alarm clock which my cousin Steve used to use. Steve had to get up very early for his paper run, so he attached a piece of string to his alarm clock. At the other end of the piece of string was a pile of books suspended from a hanger attached to a picture rail. When the alarm went off, the string released and deposited the books on Steve’s head which woke him up.! 

Scott’s northern party version was as follows:- 

A length of stringwas tied to a weighted mechanism on the gramophone and then attached to the candle

– As the candle burned down to the level of the string, it would eventually burn through the thread or release the tension

– The released weight would then trigger the gramophone,  which was pre-set to play a loud Enrico Caruso recording at full volume

While the invention successfully ensured that meteorological data was collected on schedule, the men of the Northern Party found the sudden burst of opera in the middle of the Antarctic night to be deeply “unpopular”

Tonight, we celebrated Australia Day with the most magnificent buffet I have ever seen…..a toy boat full of prawns, muscles and calamari, all types of sushi, lamb chops, roast beef, lamingtons, tim tam desserts…….

And our team won trivia today