1960

The Beaver servicing a sledging party. New Zealand used dogs in Antarctic until 1986.

The year 1960 saw the end of RNZAF Beaver (NZ6001 later 6010)and Auster (NZ 1707) operations. The DHC 2 Beaver use ended with the aircraft crashing on the Beardmore Glacier on January 15th 1960 being caught in a descending ceiling. It was a write-off. There were no fatalities. Antarctic flying has had a high toll on aircraft.  The Beaver was bought by public subscription and named City of Auckland. There are Beavers in New Zealand, replicating the appearance of this aircraft, but they are not the original aircraft. See Kiwi Beavers for more on the NZ use of these aircraft. The aircraft operated from Scott Airstrip on the Ross Shelf ice adjacent to Scott Base, with a small hangar. They over wintered there.

The Auster had limited lifting capacity and only ever made one landing on the Polar Plateau.

The RNZAF also owned and operated an ex RAF TAE (later USN) Otter with the intent of using it in Antarctica but this never eventuated. The USN stored it at McMurdo and that was where the RNZAF bought it, but it was shipped it back to New Zealand without ever flying there under NZ ownership.

The 1959-60 voyage of Endeavour has been recounted by Ian Bradley. 2004,  Don't Rock the Boat, Privately published, Auckland. He was her navigating officer.

1960-61 was the last trip by Endeavour I  

1960 cachet

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1961

Airletter

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1962

Endeavour II

Ice Breaker USS Staten Island clearing a passage past  Mt Erebus November 1962

In June 1962, US navy oiler Namakagon was lent to NZ. She went through a refit first and was strengthened for service in ice. Commissioned into the RNZN in October 1962 as HMNZS Endeavour II.

See stamp. Endeavour served as Antarctic support ship until the end of the 1970/71 season and was returned to the US in June 1971.

50th anniversary of Scott's 1912 expedition.

Huts of the Heroic Age

Modern practice has been to use the ship names as a name for the expedition though they were not originally so named.

Cape Adare is at the entrance to the Ross Sea on the Antarctic mainland. Cape Evans and Cape Royds are further north on Ross Island. Other expeditions of this time did not over-winter so did not have huts.

Antarctic Heritage Trust  Historic Huts page

Two heroic age ships are preserved, Fram at Oslo and Discovery at Dundee

Scott Base is near to Scott's 1902 "Discovery Hut". It is next to the US McMurdo base, on the far side of that base from Scott Base.

Hut Restoration

There are several covers with hut restoration cachets right up to the present. In a high stress environment with structures never originally intended to last more than a few years, this task is never-ending and continues today.

	Hut Point - thumbnail.
	another, Vince's Cross on the headland.
	Hut point location map - thumbnail.
	Site map - thumbnail.

All cover illustrations are thumbnails

1963

The vice-regal visit was commemorated by a special cancel and pre-printed covers.

'Vice-regal' refers to New Zealand's governor general - the monarch's representative in New Zealand, who performs the same constitutional role in New Zealand's governance as the British Monarch does in Britain. The British Queen is officially the Queen of New Zealand but it is not practical for her to perform the role in absentia. The GG appointment is for a term and is made by the Queen on the nomination of the New Zealand government. The GG of the time was Brigadier Sir Bernard Fergusson. He was the last British born GG. After him Governments have preferred New Zealand born appointees.

The penguins of the Ross Sea are Adelie and Emperor penguins.

Both appear on many stamps, including these from the 2001set.

Emperors have an extraordinary breeding cycle. The eggs are tended over winter by the males who eat nothing in that time. They cluster together to break the wind. The females return when the eggs hatch and both sexes feed the chicks. The chicks become independent about the time the sea ice breaks up allowing them immediate access to the sea.

Road to Scott Base

Until 1963 the route to Scott Base from the McMurdo base was over a sea ice road. However a sea ice breakout left over-land as the only route. A road was started in 1963/64 and completed in 1966.

1962/63 cachet

HMNZS Endeavour cachet

Vice regal visit cover

1962/63 cachet

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1964

Dry Valleys
Why are the dry valleys dry? Basically snow melting exceeds the snow fall over the course of a year. Snow melting comes from the winds descending from the polar plateau. The air in these winds warms as it descends. Some of the melting is sublimation where the ice converts directly to vapour without becoming liquid. 

Rivers can form in the warmest part of the year. The lakes that some flow into can remain frozen at the surface.

The saline bottom water in Lake Vanda traps solar energy and is well above freezing. Ice in such lakes can melt from the bottom as the water is warmed by radiation passing through the ice.

The dry valleys have other interesting features including patterned ground, sand dunes, ventifacts and some of the best geological exposures anywhere in the world.

The glacier melt water flowing into Lake Vanda from the east remains unfrozen for a period. That is the site of the Lake Vanda swimming club's events. The lake stays in water balance by ablation of water from the ice surface.

The Vanda Base at one stage had a letter box - 17A Antarctica. It was a spoof - but perhaps there is somewhere a cover addressed to it? There were airdrops of mail to Vanda Station. Minnie and Henry Crun were not resident (see the Goon Show, "The Telephone" where they lived at 17A Africa*). The letter box with its no circulars sign and milk bottle (milk delivery by bottle was then common in NZ) is now on display in the TAE/IGY hut museum at Scott Base.

Vanda was also famous for the quality of its scones.

* It was not the only outing for such an address. In The Goons' "Napoleon's Piano"  Hercules Grytpype-Thynne and  Count Jim Moriarty were living at number 7A England.

First year of use of polar map cachet 

HMNZS Endeavour cachet

Soil Bureau cachet

University of Canterbury biology, Cape Royds cachet

Cape Royds cachet, cover with map stamp

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1965

The 1965 wintering over party was headed by Adrian Hayter- Leader-  who wrote about it in The Year of the Quiet Sun, 1968, Hodder and Stroughton.

The book name came because it was a sunspot minimum year when other radiation noise from the sun was at a minimum. The earlier IGY was chosen as another quiet year.  

The RNZAF recommenced its association with the Antarctic in 1965 when a Hercules of No.40 Squadron made the first of what was to become annual flights to the continent during the summer months.

RNZAF Hercules Page

There are two places used for landings. The ice strip in the McMurdo sea ice is used early in the summer season but when the ice becomes too thin, traffic shifts to Williams Field on the Ross Ice Shelf. Ground traffic to the latter from McMurdo goes past Scott Base.

Weddell seal project cachet

McMurdo Ice Shelf project and seal project cachets

Signed flight cover

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1966

Ozone research has been an ongoing part of work at Scott Base since the 1950's. As is well known the trend for ozone in the upper atmosphere has been down.

Antarctic Ozone data, a) ozone hole area, b) annual minimum ozone.

Signed by base leader Michael Prebble

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1967

This was the year New Zealand switched to decimal currency. The decimal stamps were the same designs as the old ones. The first day cover of 10 July 1967 is a rare one. 1967 was also the 10th anniversary year of the New Zealand Antarctic programme.

The base also started to apply green to its buildings in this year. Prior to this they hade been painted orange. For lovers of trivia the colour is Chelsea cucumber.

The 1967 decimal set, of considerably higher catalogue value than the 1957 set. The first day cover is quite rare.

USA 1988

Pre-decimal, sticker

Pre-decimal

10th anniversary cover

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1968

In 1967/68 Magga Dan made two tourist voyages to the Ross Sea. On the second of them was the first New Zealand woman journalist to visit the area -  Dorothy Braxton - See "The abominable snow-women" 1969, - AH and AW Reed, Wellington.

Scott Base

Base cachet

Base and NZARP map cachet

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1969

In 1969 a five man party over-wintered at Vanda Station.

In the 1969/70 summer scientific party was Pam Young, the first woman in the New Zealand Antarctic programme.

Cape Adare

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