How Lorde spent her five days in Antarctica on Scott Base

No holiday: Lorde spent five days on Scott Base in her ambassadorial role for Antarctica NZ. Photo / Supplied, Antarctica NZ

"It's not a holiday," says Lorde.

The 24-year-old musician was clear that her trip to Antarctica's Scott Base was for work. Something she says was especially clear from Antarctica New Zealand's 85-person research base which was hosting her visit. "You're on a base there are rules and codes in place, and you have to fall in line with that."

Last year the Auckland pop-star was invited as part of the ambassadorial programme for a once in a life-time visit to Scott Base, which civilians rarely see. The programme has been running for years. Previous Ambassadors have included chefs, artists and vloggers.

Ella Yelich-O'Connor – better known by her stage name, Lorde - would be following not only in the footsteps of Hillary and Shackleton but Margaret Mahy, Dick Frizzell and Annabel Langbein.

View out the window: Scott base is bathed sunlight in all-day in summer. Photo / File

Antarctica NZ CEO Sarah Williamson says it is an important part of raising awareness for the agency's work. "They share their experiences with their wide audiences, both local and international, and inspire others to value, protect and understand Antarctica."

William says their ambassadors are exposed to real hands-on research and the experience of living on base. It's important to sharing the organisation's vision: " that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean is valued, protected and understood."

Talking about the experience in an interview for the science agency, Lord said the experience had not only opened her eyes to the work of Antarctica New Zealand but inspired new artistic work.

"There's nothing else to focus on. Everything is elemental and dropped back to purity."

Describing the five days experience, she said "Antarctica isn't always fun, exactly", however it did lead to what she described as the "most rock and roll moment" of her life thus far.

Perfect places: Where Lorde went in Antarctica

Scott Base

Scott Base is New Zealand's southernmost settlement, and only permanent foothold on Antarctica. "There's something very Kiwi about the feeling of the Base," says Lorde. Compared to the larger nearby McMurdo station used by the US Antarctic Program, she felt far more at home there.
Like many New Zealand towns this time of year, Scot Base's summer population is much higher – 85 researchers and support staff, compared to around 10 in winter.
Connected by a subterranean network of tunnels, she says "you can walk from one side of the base to the other without going outside." Ross Island's weather is unpredictable and ranges from summer highs of -1°C to winter lows of −37°C.Though this time of year, it is less about avoiding the freezing cold, and more about staying out of the unrelenting sun. "It's bright daylight the whole time.

"It's very charming. Just the no-frills nature of it focuses you on what you are there to do."
However it was the shared sense community and public spaces that won over the singer.
In particular the Antarctica New Zealand staff mess, the Tatty Flag Bar:

"To be able to sit and drink a whiskey, while looking at the ice and all the seals lying there. You have to pinch yourself."

Antarctic Training: Lorde camped out at Windless Bight. Photo / Supplied, Antarctica NZ

Windless Bight

In between Castle Rock and Terror Point, Lorde spent the night camped out to practice survival skills and Antarctic Field Training.

"You're never aware of nature in that form, quite like being down there."

It's an experience she says she has been reliving almost nightly– she says since returning her dreams have been full of emperor penguins and expansions of white. "It stays with you for weeks."

Arrival Heights and McMurdo Sound

A cliff-like escarpment on the Hut Point Peninsula, the Arrival Heights Lab overlooking the Ross Sea has a touch of the Bond Villain's layer about it. The golf ball-shaped station sits away from the rest of the base to reduce interference with delicate instruments.

Lorde spent time with research teams learning about the vast range of scientific studies being conducted in the region.

Arrival Heights: The Laboratory is out on its own on Hut Point Peninsula. Photo / Wikimedia Commons

"It was about science," she said. "Tracking whales, visiting bird sanctuaries and giving weather readings from instruments put in place by Sir Edmund Hillary."

Lorde described tracing whales by helicopter in the McMurdo Sound as the most "rock and roll moment" of her life.

Flying low with the doors open, following whales as they breached the surface of the sea ice was a thrill.

"This is as cool as your life will ever get," she told herself.

Rock and roll: Chasing whales by helicopter is cool as life gets, says Lorde. Photo / Supplied

Hundred-year-old huts

Having grown up reading about the golden age explorers, visiting the huts built by Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott was a surreal experience.

Lorde says as a Kiwi she felt a particular resonance with the Antarctic explorers, and was aware of "New Zealand's special relationship with the Antarctic".

Historic Hut: Captain Scott's base at Cape Evans. Photo /Getty Images

In Cape Evans, on the far west of Ross Island she visited Captain Scott's 110 year old Hut. Preserved by permafrost, the "Skuary" is one the oldest buildings in Antarctica, designated a historic monument in 2012 by the New Zealand and UK.

Similarly another permanent mark left by a storied explorer is Shackleton's Hut on Cape Royds. In 1908 it was left by Shackleton's team fully stocked for future with enough supplies for 15 men.

Whisky galore: Shackleton's well stocked hut at Cape Royds. Photo / Getty Images

Surprisingly for tee-total Shackleton this included several crates of whisky. Stored at freezing temperatures beneath the hut, the bottles were put on ice until 2007 when they were retrieved by historians.

Dunedin author Neville Peat, documented the recovery in his book Shackleton's Whisky. Talking to the Otago Daily Times he said – as historic artefacts under the Antarctic treaty – the bottles remain on Ross Island, but he could not be pressed to revealing an exact location.

My best guess would be ask at the Tatty Flag Bar.

Lorde's Photography Book GOING SOUTH will be published in February and pre-order is currently sold out

Going South, the photo book by Lorde. Photo / Supplied