5 Tough Little Workhorses
Flying in often appalling conditions and frequently at high altitudes in extremely cold weather, the trans-Antarctic expedition’s single-engine Otter, Beaver and Auster aircraft were the tireless workhorses that contributed mightily to the success of the crossing.
6 We called it Suicide Alley
We called it ‘suicide alley’ – the tortuous, 20-kilometre track that snaked over melting ice floes from where Endeavour was moored against the sea ice in McMurdo Sound to our site for Scott Base. Those of us who drove tractor trains laden with prefabricated sections of the huts, as well as crates and crates of food, equipment and fuel that would last the expedition for 18 months were always conscious that about a metre below was the deadly cold, green water of McMurdo Sound.
7 Visiting the Old Huts of Scott and Shackleton
When the initial construction of Scott Base was completed a small group of us took a brief break to visit Scott’s hut at Cape Evans and the Nimrod hut that Shackleton built at Cape Royds. We had already visited Scott’s Discovery hut, close to our base. We were dismayed at their condition and I wrote an article suggesting that the NZ National Historic Places Trust take an interest.
8 A Visit by Killer Whale
A pod of killer whales – orcas – took an uncomfortably close look at myself and Derek Wright, the expedition’s cinematographer from the National Film Unit, during a stroll we made about 1.5 kilometres across the sea ice from Scott Base, one sunny January day in 1957.