The only building left in Antarctica by explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton has been listed as one of the world's 100 most important historic treasures.
Prime Minister Helen Clark hailed the listing as a huge step forward.
It has been included in the World Monument Fund 2004 watch list, which identifies 100 sites
considered to be the most important and the most endangered.
The list includes the Great Wall of China, the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, the Taj Mahal, Pompeii and the Old City in Damascus.
Helen Clark, who is also Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, launched in March a conservation report proposing policies and actions to conserve the hut.
The Government has helped finance the project, which is administered by the Antarctic Heritage Trust.
The hut was built by Shackleton on Ross Island during the British Antarctic expedition of 1907-1909 and is one of only a few intact wooden buildings on the continent.
Shackleton was within 180km of reaching the South Pole when he turned back.
The hut was designed to withstand extreme weather only for the duration of the expedition.
Nearly a century of Antarctic blizzards later, it still stands, with many expedition artefacts in it, but there has been considerable decay and it is urgently in need of restoration.
The New York-based World Monument Fund said the hut was of scientific and historic importance.
"The building itself is well preserved but the kennels and the artefacts inside and outside are in poor condition," the fund said.
"Threats include environmental degradation, micro-organism attacks, blizzards and snow, and the impact of increasing human visitation which has brought looting."
- NZPA
