There’s a couple of spe­cial screen­ings com­ing up this week­end to com­mem­or­ate the 50th Anniversary, on 17 March 2008, of the return to New Zea­l­and of HMNZS Endeav­our with the mem­bers of the Com­mon­wealth Trans-Ant­arc­tic Exped­i­tion.

The 1955–58 Com­mon­wealth Trans-Ant­arc­tic Exped­i­tion (CTAE) was Com­mon­wealth-sponsored and suc­cess­fully com­pleted the first over­land cross­ing of Ant­arc­tica, via the South Pole.

Fun­ded by the gov­ern­ments of the UK, New Zea­l­and, Aus­tralia and South Africa, as well as private and cor­por­ate dona­tions under the pat­ron­age of Queen Eliza­beth II, the exped­i­tion was headed by Brit­ish explorer Dr Vivi­an Fuchs, with the late Sir Edmund Hil­lary lead­ing a sup­ply sup­port team.

While Sir Ed’s sup­ply party beat the Eng­lish led group to the South Pole (being only the third group to reach the Pole over­land after Amund­sen in 1911 and Scott in 1912), the exped­i­tion arrived at Scott Base on 2 March, 1958, hav­ing crossed 3,473 km of pre­vi­ously unex­plored snow and ice in 99 days.

The pro­gramme, presen­ted in asso­ci­ation with Ant­arc­tic Research Centre (Vic­tor­ia Uni­ver­sity of Wel­ling­ton), includes foot­age of the depar­ture and return of the CTAE exped­i­tion, stun­ning film from on the ice, as well as clas­sic film seg­ments cel­eb­rat­ing New Zealand’s Ant­arc­tic con­nec­tion over the last 50 years.

Fri­day 14, Sat­urday 15 March at 7pm
Entry by koha
75 mins