Suppose I were to need to bring a few people (4) from their residence in a fictional New Hampshire town to the South Pole, what’s a realistic, very general, plan for doing so? I want them to spend some time on a ship, but other than that I’m open to travel options; before the ship I suppose you’d fly to…Alaska? Florida? South America? I obviously have no idea where they’d grab a ship. Given this is a kidnapping, we won’t need to pester the nice scientists or get permits or anything, so don’t worry about that part.
Suggestions on how to get them there? Perhaps someone could point me in the direction of someone’s account of making a similar trip, minus the kidnappings of imaginary people.
Fly to New Zealand or Australia and then take a ship. Hobart in Tasmania is the port from which vessels usually depart to service the Australian Antarctic bases.
Why don’t you have them ride motorcycles from NH to the tip of South America and then catch a ship? The only place that you have to take other transportation is the pass between Pananma and Colombia. It is that far but it is jungle there to keep the countries segregated but there are ferries between them.
The US Antarctic Devron programme (AKA Operation Deep Freeze ) is based at Christchurch International Airport, in New Zealand.
Simply get on a flight from New York-Los Angeles-Auckland-Christchurch, and then stow away on one of the Operation Deep Freeze C-130H Hercules Transports.
By the time anyone notices they’re on board (if they even do), they can be past the Point Of No Return, and they can jump plane in Antarctica and head onto their ultimate goal.
Christchurch International Airport isn’t the most heavily guarded place in the world (to put it mildly), so I doubt anyone’s going to notice a couple of 14 or 15 year olds climbing over a hurricane mesh fence at night and jimmying the lock on a hangar…
How on earth can kidnappers take their victims on an airplane? If I were being kidnapped and taken to an airport my quickest way to freedom would be by screaming “I have a bomb!” (Granted, I’d be arrested, too, but we’d sort everything out eventually I’m sure.)
New Hamphire’s got some coastline, If I’m not mistaken. Put everyone in a rowboat and do a reverse-Shackelton.
I don’t know why people keep talking about Australia and New Zealand. The South Pole can be reached by going directly south from South America. New Zealand is practically on the other side of the world and I have no idea what you would hit if you went directly South from there. I always thought the Americas were fortunate to be gateway to both the North and South Poles.
Australia and NZ have Antarctic Exploration Bases, speak English, and are civilised first world countries. They’re ideal jumping-off points for Antarctica- Shackleton and Scott, amongst others, embarked from Lyttelton, in NZ’s South Island…
Although southern South America is closer, New Zealand and Australia have the closest large cities. New Zealand is also the most convenient place to leave from for the big US base at McMurdo. And because of terrain, if you are actually going on to the South Pole it’s easier to go in from the Ross Ice shelf than coming in from the Palmer Peninsula close to the Americas, which is why both Scott and Amundsen went in that way.
That’s true. But the OP asked for possibilities to put into a fictional account. Both New Zealand and Australia also offer direct routes to Antarctica. That’s why they’ve been mentioned.
The OP said “South Pole”, not “Antarctica.” As far as I know, the only thing anywhere near the south pole is the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It says all personnel and cargo to this research station goes through McMurdo Station. The usual way to get to McMurdo is by plane from Christchurch, New Zealand, but McMurdo is on the coast so I expect you can take a ship from somewhere else.
Scott Base (NZ) is on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.
If your characters take a ship (although I still think grabbing a plane would be better), they’ll need transport across the ice.
If history has learnt anything from Captain Scott’s misadventure in the Antarctic, it’s this:
Don’t take Ponies when you’ve been offered Huskies!
The ponies froze to death or had to be shot, which caused all sorts of logistical problems later on, ending with Scott & Co freezing to death in the middle of nowhere, which is rather an odd way to get yourself made famous, and probably caused all sorts of “Popsicle” and jokes after the memorial service. (Interestingly, because they died on a glacier, their bodies have since moved to and fallen into the ocean as a result of glacial movement).
For all the tragedy (which wouldn’t have been out of place in Ancient Greece or a Buddy Comedy film), it’s a fascinating story, and it’s worth noting that everyone remembers Scott and not Amundsen, although Amundsen lived to tell everyone about how the South Pole looks like much the rest of Antarctica (ie, bloody cold, white, and did I mention bloody cold?).
Amundsen, incidentally, vanished in 1928 whilst looking for the crew of the Blimp Italia. The Italia’s crew were later rescued, but Amundsen was never found. It’s thought his plane crashed near Bear Island, north of the Norwegian mainland.
No, what he’s saying makes sense. The OP said the starting destination is in North America. You can reach the South Pole by heading straight south. Why circle half the Earth and travel to Australia and then head south? (Admittedly, most people should realize that Antartica is the next place south from New Zealand.)
As other posters mentioned, Australia and NZ are the closest places with major cities (ie, harbours and airports) to Antarctica.
I don’t think any 15 year old relishes the thought of trying to round the Tierra Del Fuego in a Chilean Fishing Trawler, when you could just jump a flight that’s heading to the South Pole anyway out of a major city, albeit one 14,000mi away…
Isn’t the South pole directly south from … everywhere?
