NZ-made ‘Cutting-Edge’ VR Experience Tours The UK

Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery Hut has opened its doors to the UK public thanks to Kiwi-made cutting-edge technology.

The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZAHT), in collaboration the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) are touring England and Scotland for the first time with two immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences.

The virtual reality tour will visit schools, museums and Antarctic organisations where the British public can don the VR headset, hold the controllers and come face to face with penguins, feed huskies, and meet heroic-era explorers.

Among those seeing first-hand how VR is transforming Antarctic education was UKAHT Patron HRH The Princess Royal at a special event at Gilbert White’s House and Gardens in Hampshire.

HRH The Princess Royal officially launched NZAHT’s Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project at Scott’s Discovery hut in 2002.

“It was wonderful to update The Princess Royal on the significant work we have undertaken, and continue to do, to conserve the explorer bases of Antarctica’s early explorers including Captain Robert Falson Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton,” says NZAHT Executive Director Francesca Eathorne.

“We're excited to bring Scott’s expedition base to people virtually, making it accessible to those who may not have the opportunity to visit these historic sites in person,”

“It gives great insight into the everyday items the explorers had with them and how they used the hut to support the important science and exploration they undertook.”

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NZAHT launched its new VR experience of Scott’s Discovery Hut with Auckland-based virtual reality tech company StaplesVR in August last year.

The VR experience uses a combination of LiDar and photogrammetry data to give the public access to the first expedition base on Antarctica’s Ross Island built in 1902 - making it over 122 years old.

"To create something as realistic and true to real world form as Scott’s Discovery Hut VR, the team at StaplesVR spent over 1000 hours modelling each artefact and piece of timber to be painstakingly accurate. It was incredibly important to ensure we accurately captured the heritage and significance of the building along with the items inside," says StaplesVR Technical Manager Krystal Paraone.

Christchurch man Clarence Hare was on the 1901-1904 expedition with Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s. Some of his descendants living in the UK will be taking the opportunity to virtually visit a place that is important to their family history.

A significant amount of the funds for the initial conservation of Scott’s explorer bases was raised in the UK. NZAHT is delighted to now be able to share their work to save Scott’s Discovery Hut - including conserving over 500 artefacts inside - with those who supported them.

“The conservation work our teams undertake is world-leading and sharing it through VR helps us to educate people around the importance of saving this cultural heritage for future generations,” Eathorne says.

NZAHT and UKAHT have a long history of successful partnership, helping each other with cold-climate heritage conservation work in one of the world’s most extreme environments. The joint tour marks an exciting step forward in their collaboration, combining their expertise in digital technologies and storytelling to make the remote cultural heritage sites that they care for more accessible to all.

There will be two virtual reality experiences on offer during the tour.

The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust’s A Frozen Night is a 30-minute-long VR experience which transports participants to a fully immersive reconstruction of a historic scientific base where they will step into the shoes of over-wintering Antarctic scientists.

UKAHT’s Chief Executive Camilla Nichol says those taking part will be among the first in the UK to engage with Antarctic heritage sites in this new and unique way.

“A Frozen Night is UKAHT’s first virtual reality experience based on a true story from the archives and narrated by those who lived and worked in our southernmost base, Stonington Island. One of the earliest British sites, established in 1948 and a key dog sledging base, Stonington Island enabled teams to travel far inland into the Antarctic Peninsula.

“Now, for the first time, A Frozen Night allows people to virtually travel into Stonington’s past to experience the wonders and risks of Antarctic field work.”

The virtual reality tour, generously funded by The Charles Hayward Foundation and donors to NZAHT’s Inspiring Explorers™ Fund, will also visit the Scott Polar Research Institute and Discovery Point Museum, home to Scott’s Discovery ship

About New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust 

Antarctic Heritage Trust is a New Zealand-based not-for-profit with a vision of Inspiring Explorers. A world leader in cold-climate heritage conservation, the Trust cares for the expedition bases and more than 20,000 artefacts left behind by Antarctic explorers, including Carsten Borchgrevink, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Sir Edmund Hillary.

To date the Trust has restored and conserved Scott’s huts at Cape Evans and Hut Point, Shackleton’s hut at Cape Royds and Hillary’s hut at Scott Base. This has led to a number of significant discoveries including 114-year-old whisky under Ernest Shackleton’s hut, a notebook from surgeon and photographer George Murray Levick at Scott’s Cape Evans hut as well as lost Ross Sea Party photographs. In 2017, conservators discovered a century-old fruitcake and a 118-year-old watercolour amongst artefacts from Antarctica’s first buildings at Cape Adare.

The Trust shares the legacy of exploration through outreach programmes and encourages the spirit of exploration through expeditions to engage and inspire a new generation.

You can read more at www.nzaht.org

About UK Antarctic Heritage Trust

The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) is a UK-based charity dedicated to conserving Britain’s fascinating history and legacy in Antarctica. UKAHT was born out of a small group’s passion to champion the legacy of all those who went before us in the Antarctic. Since 1993, the organisation has worked to protect this, from conserving the huts left by those first pioneers and managing the historic site of Base A, Port Lockroy, to collaborating with other groups to ensure that science and tourism on the Antarctic Peninsula are sustainable. 

Following a conservation survey in 1994, British Base A, Port Lockroy, was recognised for its historic importance and designated as a Historic Site and Monument 61 under the Antarctic Treaty. The huts were renovated in 1996 by a team from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and have since been open to visitors during the Antarctic summer. UKAHT took over the running of Port Lockroy in 2006.

The charity also runs the world’s southernmost post office at Base A, Port Lockroy, on behalf of the Government of the British Antarctic Territory, which in turn donates a portion of the Post Office revenue to UKAHT. 

Anyone wishing to help protect and share the wonder of Antarctica and its heritage can support the charities and New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust and the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust by becoming a member or making a donation.  

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