Sir Edmund Hillary's 1957 Antarctic hut. Photo / Tim McPhee
Sir Edmund Hillary's 1957 Antarctic hut. Photo / Tim McPhee
In 1957, four years after climbing Mt Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary helped to build the first building at Scott Base, Antarctica. This hut, restored in 2017, was established as a base for his party of 23 explorers and scientists to study and live in one of the world's most extremeenvironments. Now, for the first time, you can go inside.
The Antarctic Heritage Trust has launched a fully immersive virtual reality experience to take you inside the hut.
There are five rooms to explore - with their original 1950s interiors intact. Wander the hallways, and learn about how the team lived, ate, worked and slept. You can walk right through the hut - look at the stove, the bookshelves, pick up binoculars and peer outside. There's food on the shelves, cooking and scientific monitoring equipment. Watch original footage of Ed and his men, and view artefacts scattered about the place to learn about the history of New Zealand's presence in Antarctica.
The hut has been conserved in time for Scott Base's 60th anniversary.
The experience is free for anyone. For the VR experience on your mobile device, you'll need a cardboard headset and to download the Antarctic Heritage Trust VR app from the App Store or Google Play. For the fully immersive and interactive experience, download from Steam and watch with a VR headset. Or the VR experience will be hosted around the country - nzaht.org to find out where to catch it.
