The artefact being returned to Scott's Discovery Hut. Photo: Supplied / Antarctic Heritage Trust
Tears welled in Ngawai Clendon's eyes when she and a group of young Antarctic adventurers finally returned a special artefact to Scott's Discovery Hut, only for one to freeze rolling down her cheek.
Overcome with emotion, she and seven other explorers had completed their mission to return a 19th century adventure novel - Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo - to Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Hut near McMurdo Station.
Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo was returned to Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Hut near McMurdo Station. Photo: Supplied / Antarctic Heritage Trust
"Once I got there I was overwhelmed, and I thought to myself, 'there is no way I'm about to cry right now'. However I looked down and a single tear left my face, but once it got a third of the way down, it froze. It was that cold," Clendon said.
Clendon was one of seven New Zealanders and one Australian selected from hundreds of applicants to join the Antarctic Heritage Trust's expedition to the Ross Sea region last month.
The well-thumbed novel was given to the trust by an anonymous donor, covered in sooty fingerprints and the smell of seal blubber that fuelled explorers' stoves and lamps.
Scott's Discovery Hut. Photo: Supplied / Antarctic Heritage Trust
Voyaging on the Heritage Adventurer ship, the group encountered sea ice covering vast areas of the Southern Ocean.
One of Clendon's companions, Calum Turner, said he was in awe of the ice, which thwarted their first attempt at landing, then cleared.
"We're talking sea ice that's the size of Wellington's harbour, imagine an area that big, fully iced over, disappearing overnight. It just goes to show how dynamic that environment is," he said.
"I had a vision in my mind of what it might look like, you know there was ocean, ice and mountains, but what I hadn't anticipated was how vast this place is.
"One of the first places we landed was Cape Adere, a tiny little cape, but once you're there it's everything in your periphery. You could fit a whole country in this space easily."
Antarctica heightened his senses, Turner said.
"There's this brilliant opportunity to listen, whether it's penguins, leopard seals or the way waves lap under ocean ice, carving out these little caves with icicles, something you wouldn't even really notice unless you can hear it," he said.
Calum Turner. Photo: Supplied / Antarctic Heritage Trust
Clendon said strict biosecurity rules meant making snow angels were out of the question and she was struck by the effects of climate change.
"One day at Terra Nova bay - we were doing a lot of walking to be fair - it was literally so hot I was just wearing one base layer," she said.
"On average we would wear four to five like top layers, but it was really hot, and that's confrontational to see in terms of climate change."
Ngawai Clendon. Photo: Supplied / Antarctic Heritage Trust
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