The Princess Royal, Pricess Anne flew by RNZAF Hercules from Christchurch to the Ross Dependency arriving on Thuersday 7 Feb 2002 after a boomerang flight the previous day. Princess Anne, while staying at Scott Base, visited various historic huts in the area as well as the nearby American McMurdo Base and the Italian base at Terra Nova Bay. She was scheduled to attend a special anniversary dinner at Scott base to celebrate the centenary of the first British Antarctic Expedition of Capt Robert F Scott arriving in the Antarctic, as well as a special church service in the Chapel of the Snows before returning to Christchurch February 10th.
While in Christchurch she laid a wreath at the famous Scott Statue in Worcester Boulevard before attending a civic function in the Canterbury Museum's Antarctic Wing on Monday Febraury 11th.
Jim Lovell - Apollo 13 Astronaut - January 2000
The 71-year-old former astronaut has made two trips to the moon -- the historic first lunar orbit flight, December 1968's Apollo 8, and the aborted Apollo 13 mission in April 1970. And now he's added a new destination to his exotic resume -- the South Pole.
Last January, Lovell accompanied planetary scientist Paul Sipiera to Antarctica's Thiel Mountains, and visited the South Pole as part of a privately funded meteorite expedition. The team spent five days camping out in snow and ice, and found 19 meteorites
"It was cold, and it was windy," Lovell says. "We were in two-man tents. The wind kept blowing the snow over; we had to keep shoveling snow. And I said, 'Why is a guy who's 71 still out here shoveling snow?'"
The answer is that even today, Lovell has exploration in his blood. "Life can get awful boring if you're not doing anything," he says.
