the heart of the great alone

One of the things I love about Christchurch is its identity as an Antarctic gateway. It figured as the last major port of call for many of the heroic era Antarctic journeys, and a person looking to remember the legacies of the great explorers will find plenty of monuments, artefacts, and personal connections to maintain their interest in the subject. This is one of the ways that Christchurch has developed in a way that differentiates it from the rest of New Zealand - Auckland and Wellington rarely find their names in the annals of Antarctic history, but Christchurch seems to find itself on the opening and closing pages of every heroic southern adventure. And as Christchurch finds itself directly north of the Ross Sea, where the US and NZ have their primary Antarctic bases, our little city is still the last stop for those heading to the ice today.

So while it was no great surprise to see an the Royal Collection's exhibit of Ponting and Hurley's photographs from the Terra Nova and Endurance expeditions on at the Canterbury Museum, it was still an exciting occasion for someone like me - someone with, admittedly, a bit of a crush on Ernest Shackleton. If only I'd been born 100 years earlier.... Having read Shackleton and Scott's diaries of these expeditions, Frank Hurley's lovely words and pictures describing his experience as Shackleton's expedition photographer on the Endurance, and accounts from members of their scientific staff and crew, the gallery seemed full of familiar friends, retelling a story that I had long ago made myself a part of. Here are some of my favorites:







"A night watchman spins a yarn" (Hurley)
A classic image, and a beautiful one.





"The HMS Endurance crushed
beneath the floes" (Hurley)

The Endurance got stuck in pack ice and, after
months of anxious waiting, was crushed by its
massive force. Its slow demise makes for some
stunning pictures.

"Vida" (Ponting)
One of the dogs from Scott's expedition.
I don't think Scott ate as many of his dogs
as Shackleton did...





"Captain Oates and Siberian Ponies on board Terra Nova" (Ponting)
Scott invested heavily in ponies, hoping that they'd offer
significant benefits while hauling heavy sledges to the pole.
It didn't really pan out for him.



Neither of these two pictures of Tom Crean
were part of the exhibition, but I like them so
much that I had to include them anyway. He
was part of Shackleton's Endurance expedition.



Where can I get a hat like that?

As soon as the library reopens from its weeks-long holiday siesta, I'm going to renew my efforts to find some Antarctic classics - most notably Cherry Apsley-Garrard's "The Worst Journey in the World" - and maybe pay a bit more attention to the pictures :) If you haven't read Shackleton's "South"...don't you think you might want to get on that?

-Rachel