While in Antarctica this season I spent most of my time with the Huts Restoration Party at Cape Evans and Cape Royds on Ross Island. After flying down to Scott Base early in December, I Joined I he rest of the party at Cape Evans (25 miles from Scott Base), by a tractor trip across the sea Ice. Our party of five consisted of Les Quartermain, leader; Jack Sandman, carpenter; Bob Buckley and Colin Jenness, up to Christmas; and Eric Gibbs and Graeme Wilson from the New Year onwards. Cape Evans, where Scott's old hut for his 1910-13 expedition and the departure point for his tragic journey to the Pole, is situated, was also the home of the 1915-17 component of Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Since 1917 till the time of the U.S. Operation Windmill In 1947 the hut lay undisturbed and full of Ice and snow.

With renewed interest being paid to the old huts since the International Geophysical Year, and the establishment of New Zealand's Scott Base and the American McMurdo two miles away, the old huts have been visited by many people during the summer months. Our job was to open the Cape Evans and Royds huts, dig out the ice and snow which filled the interior, make the huts weathertight, and generally restore them to an "as was" condition.