The following are some pictures sent to us here at WeatherWatch from the brave and hardy souls at Antarctica New Zealand.

As you can see from the following, while it’s a chilly -40 degrees, the temperature isn’t the only thing to take the breath away!

The pressure ridges outside Antarctica New Zealand’s Scott Base are a maze of naturally sculpted ice and surreal views – Winter Field Support, Mike Rowe, took this stunning photo of a 3m high ridge with Mt Erebus in the background at lunchtime, when the sun was at its brightest! 

 

 

Mike Rowe supplied this image of the Joint Antarctic Search and Rescue Team (JASART). 

They are drilling to check and map cracks in the sea ice outside the Kiwi Scott Base and American McMurdo Station so that they can flag the safe traverse routes.

 

Tim Delany, Antarctica New Zealand’s Winter Technical Support at Scott Base, visits the Arrival Heights lab several times a week to check and maintain long running scientific experiments. 

The cloud cleared for the first time this week as he did his rounds and revealed a stunning Aurora Australis lighting up the starry sky.

He used a long exposure to capture the Aurora…and this has enhanced the light effects in the pitch black day/night sky!

 

And finally, did you have to defrost your car this morning? Lex McKenzie, the team’s Winter Mechanic, took this photo of Antarctica New Zealand’s D6 ‘dozer.

Before he could start it and bring it inside he had to clear the snow from inside the engine bay, cab and get as much off the outside as possible! 

The barometer’s slowly rising down there today – where its negative 30 degrees.

Thanks to the team at Antarctic NZ for the pics, check out more about them at their Facebook page, here.

-All photos courtesy of Antarctica NZ