Ice realm ... Canterbury Museum.
In search of details about her intrepid great-grandfather, Flip Byrnes delves into a goldmine of Antarctic history.
I'VE just slept with Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. Not literally, of course, but somewhere in the plush walls of the heritage wing of the Novotel in Christchurch lie whispers of the great man, who stayed here when it was Warner's almost a century ago.
Shackleton was on his way to the South Pole; I'm here on a journey of my own.
This hotel is an auspicious launch pad from which to learn more about my great-grandfather, Antarctic explorer and photographer Frank Hurley, a man I never met but who has profoundly influenced my life.
Following his footsteps has lead me across both polar circles to the sands of the Middle East but today I'll get closer to my invisible mentor than ever before on a cross-town treasure hunt unearthing Christchurch's icy links.
First stop is the International Antarctic Centre, devoted to contemporary Antarctica; if you can't afford the real thing, this is as good as it gets.
While schoolchildren squawk like skuas at the little blue penguins display, darting among interactive exhibits, I'm searching for clues to Frank's experiences aboard Shackleton's Endurance expedition.
Marooned on ice and Elephant Island for 22 months when their ship was crushed in Antarctic ice, the crew was rescued after Shackleton sailed to South Georgia, 1480 kilometres away, by lifeboat.
I bet they'd have considered the Kiwi worker's kit at Scott Base the cat's miaow, including four pairs of pants, five tops and four sets of gloves, perfect for a jaunt to their US neighbours at the South Pole (almost five kilometres away). Even in summer's 24-hour sun, photos suggest there's a little nightlife.
Times have changed but Antarctic conditions have not. Jumping in the Storm Room offers a 45km/h wind, minus-18 degrees Antarctic blizzard experience, conditions Frank caught on film in Home of the Blizzard, somehow holding his camera while I lose my hat.
Up to speed on 2010 Antarctica, I need to retreat almost 100 years.
Behind the centre lie American, New Zealand and Italian Antarctic offices, plus an airport carrying base staff south in Boeing C-17s. Being the aerial gateway to the Antarctic is big business for Christchurch - Antarctica activities boost the local economy by $88 million a year.
This is the Antarctic Heritage Trust's headquarters, another Antarctic link, the conservers of Shackleton's 1908 Antarctic base.
Nine months ago, they extracted a crate of 114-year-old ice-encased Mackinlay's whisky from Shackleton's Hut and on August 16 this year opened it to find 10 of the 11 bottles intact, with one missing. This, complete with signs of the crate being jemmied, suggests one of Shackleton's team couldn't resist a tipple.
The crate is on display at the Canterbury Museum and samples will be taken for Whyte and Mackay, who bought Mackinlay's, to replicate the original recipe, which has been lost over time. Exciting news for whisky lovers; but not for me; although it's an interesting liquid link to Antarctica, there's no Hurley here.
I head to The Canterbury Club downtown and spot the guest book signed by Frank's contemporary, Captain Scott, on April 1, 1904. I'm closing in. Now to the Antarctic pilgrim's bull's-eye, the Canterbury Museum, which has one of the world's best Antarctic collections.
An exhibition, Heart of the Great Alone, featuring Antarctic photos by Frank and George Ponting, presented to King George V, is on its way from Britain's Royal Photography Collection.
I'm missing it by a whisker but curator Natalie assures me there is something else in the museum's collection worth seeing.
Laid on a table in the basement, due to be incorporated in the public exhibition, is a treasure trove of Antarctic expedition artefacts, historical gold.
There's Scott's boots, the heel indent still visible from snow shoes, tinned rations and I spy a camera. Could it be? No, it's a camera used in Antarctica by Arnold Spencer Smith, pastor and amateur photographer. Yet Frank taught him how to use it.
"This isn't the one," Natalie's fellow curator Fiona says, heading to another table. "This is the camera you want."
Hurley took eight pocket cameras on the Endurance and most were jettisoned as the ship sank. But not this one.
I pause, thunderstruck, aware it will be the first time I've held anything I am certain Frank touched, representing a personal Holy Grail.
I pick up the camera, searching for invisible fingerprints I know must be there, thinking of who held it before.
Maybe he clenched it tight, hanging from the mast as he captured the ice breaking beneath the Endurance's bow - a move in sync with his obsession "to get the shot"; rescued it while ice floes broke beneath their tents; protected it for four months, living under a lifeboat with 21 men on Elephant Island, awaiting rescue.
It's difficult to imagine what the camera endured to remain, to be placed in my hands almost 100 years later, an item that not only defined him but an item he surely loved. Antarctic history buffs will be floored by the next exhibit. Frank Worsley's navigational log, charting the 6.7-metre lifeboat's 17-day, 1287-kilometre crossing from Elephant Island to South Georgia with Shackleton.
Those pages scream of stress, neat navigational records disintegrating to frantically scrawled notes as waves and their chances of perishing rose in equal measure.
Questions have been answered but more have arisen and my last stop is Gateway Antarctica, the centre for Antarctic studies and research at the University of Canterbury. Scientists from the US Antarctic Program and New Zealand Antarctic Program host free, popular lectures in November each year, that may tempt some to sign up for the only academic course on Antarctic studies outside Cambridge in Britain.
It's ironic that sometimes one has to travel so far to find that what you're looking for, including Frank, is closer than you think.
The writer was a guest of Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism, christchurchnz.com.
Trip notes
Getting there
Air New Zealand flies daily to Christchurch from Sydney, priced from $NZ180 ($138) one way. 133 677, airnewzealand.com.au.
Staying there
Novotel Christchurch Cathedral Square has rooms priced from $NZ149 a night. novotel.com.
Antarctic attractions
The International Antarctic Centre is five minutes from Christchurch International Airport (follow the blue footprints from outside the international arrivals terminals or take the free Penguin Express from Cathedral Square, departing hourly from 9am). The centre has $NZ145 family passes for up to six people. iceberg.co.nz.
Canterbury Museum: The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton & Antarctic Photography exhibition is showing until February 20. Adult $NZ15, child $NZ8 (under fives free), concession $NZ12, family (two adults and two children) $NZ40. canterburymuseum.com.
Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, November lectures are free. www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz.
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