News

In celebration of Ōtautahi Christchurch’s annual Antarctic Festival Days of Ice from 29 September to 9 October we’ll be screening Where Memories Sleep on our 20 metre screen four times a day at the International Antarctic Centre. When: 29 September – 9 October at 9.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm & 2.30pm Duration: 30 Minutes You can watch Where…

Give a penguin a fish, and you feed him for a day. Our team at the International Antarctic Centre has been helping penguin rehabbers around the South Island by providing fish for their hungry penguins. This initiative began following severe storms in Canterbury in late 2021, which destroyed many nests at the local colony, Pohatu….

This is Antarctica like you’ve never seen it before. Got 5 minutes? Allow us to transport you with an Antarctic experience like no other. Our latest exhibit, Antarctica 101, is an immersive audiovisual experience providing a unique introduction to Antarctica. The exhibit showcases the extraordinary diversity of Antarctica in a 5 minute looped film….

A creative way to raise money for your favourite charity Calling all knitters, makers and crafting wizards! Our team has come up with a clever way to help reduce some of our excess stock and raise money for charity at the same time. We are challenging you to create some fabulous upcycled products using a…

Where have all the penguins gone? Over the last week a concerning report from Halley Bay has been making newspapers around the world. The bay is Antarctica’s second largest emperor penguin breeding ground. Or, at least, it was. After three years of very few actual births being recorded this year looks to be another…

A select group of educators, scientists and students got a chance to step aboard Korean icebreaker the RV Araon late in March. Key members of the International Antarctic Centre team travelled to Lyttelton to see up close how the facilities in the research vessel were used down on the ice. Organised by a range of groups…

On the ice an intriguing art installation gives us a look into the world of tomorrow – and possibly inspires others towards making this future a brighter one. For something that has taken thousands of years to grow the acceleration of glacier loss in both New Zealand and Antarctica over the last couple of decades…

A new exhibition is set to open in a couple of weeks at the Canterbury Museum and, with it, the one chance many will have to ever see up close the various items used by the first explorers in their battle against the inhospitable Antarctic landscape. Breaking the Ice: The First Year in Antarctica promises…

At the age of 14 her ‘polar quest’ began with a 150 km journey across thin ice to the North Pole. Then came a 550 km traverse of the Greenland icecap. By the age of 16 she had trekked 600 km from the Ross Ice Shelf to the South Pole. For Australian teenager Jade Hameister…

No, this isn’t photoshop. These icebergs really are crossed with all types of weird and wonderful lines. These beautiful ‘artworks’ occur for a number of reasons, with different colours appearing due to different circumstances. Blue stripes are the most common. These appear when crevices are filled with water that freezes so quickly that bubbles in…

Scorned at departure, celebrated upon return, Shirase Nobu would defy scepticism in Japan and abroad and, in doing so, forge a unique path into the heart of Antarctica. At age 11, Shirase Nobu would write in a diary of his obsession with the North and South poles. 38 years later he would set off…

The wonderful discovery of a 1.5 million ‘mega-colony’ of Adélie penguins last year lifted the spirits of conservation guardians. Now the case is being made for greater protection measures around the colony and it’s surrounding environment. The Adélie penguin population monitored by scientists has dropped by 65% in the last 25 years. A Guardian article…