Living Conditions
Living inside the Base Camp is very comfortable, compared with how the early explorers to Antarctica lived on the ice.
Inside the buildings at Scott Base, it is round about 20 degrees, which is a lot warmer than some of our homes here in winter. Of course, when you go outside, you need to put a lot of clothes on to keep warm!
How do you stop the cold air coming through the doors?
Buildings have very effective ways of making sure cold air doesn't come in when you open the doors. Two doors separate the inside from the outside, so that you don't let the cold air directly into the room. At Camp Haskill there is an outer door, like a big fridge door, on the wannigan and about half a metre inside this, there are glass ranch sliders. Wannigans are insulated shipping containers used for accommodation. One of the wannigans at Camp Haskill has 2 bunks and lots of computer and electronic equipment. The next door wannigan has 4 bunks, and the kitchen area. They are heated and very comfortable, but don't have a lot of room or privacy.
When you come inside at Cape Bird, you open a huge fridge type door and enter the passage, where you hang up your outer clothes before you go through another door into the main room.
What happens to the rubbish at Scott Base?
There is a rubbish expert who is the Environmental Manager at Antarctica New Zealand. It is her job to ensure that poeple conform to Antarctic Treaty regulations, and don't litter the place. Things don't rot in such extreme cold, so you don't even want food scraps left around. Rubbish at Scott Base is put into 3 containers depending on what sort of rubbish it is. Where ever you go in Antarctica there are different containers to put waste in. Some is incinerated at a very high temperature and some is taken back to New Zealand.
Looking out the window, which is double glazed to keep the cold out.