• Howick and Pakuranga Times
• 1773: Captain James Cook and the crews of his expedition ships Resolution and Adventure become the first explorers to cross the Antarctic Circle on January 17.
• 1770s-1830s: Sealers and whalers arrive in New Zealand.
• 1840: French and American expeditions, led by Jules Dumont d’Urville and Charles Wilkes. John Sac, a Maori travelling with Wilkes, becomes the first Kiwi to cross the Antarctic Circle.
• 1841: Ross Sea and Mt Erebus discovered by James Clark Ross.
• 1895: Kiwi Alexander von Tunzelmann becomes the first person to set foot on Antarctica, at Cape Adare.
• 1899: British expedition led by Carstens Borchgrevink, including several Kiwis, establishes first base in Antarctica, at Cape Adare, in February.
• 1902: Scott Island (formerly called Markham Island) discovered and landed on by Captain William Colbeck.
• 1910: Robert Falcon Scott leaves for Antarctica from Port Chalmers. Scott’s party later dies on the return journey after being delayed by a blizzard.
• 1923: Ross Dependency is proclaimed on July 30 as a British Territory entrusted to NZ.
• 1929: Combined UK-Australia-NZ expedition led by Douglas Mawson. Kiwi members include RA Falla and RG Simmers.
• 1933: The New Zealand Antarctic Society founded.
• 1946: NZ joins the International Whaling Commission.
• 1949: First publication of the NZ Antarctic Society’s quarterly journal Antarctic.
• 1955: The NZ Government decides to establish an Antarctic base as part of its contribution to International Geophysical Year, which is held in 1957-58.
• 1957: Scott Base is established in Ross Dependency on January 20. Hallett Station, south of Cape Adare, is established as a joint NZ-US operation.
• 1958: Sir Edmund Hillary, leading an expedition using farm tractors equipped for polar travel, arrives at the South Pole on January 4, the first expedition since Scott’s to reach the South Pole over land.
• 1959: Antarctic Treaty is signed on December 1 with other countries involved in scientific exploration. NZ Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) establishes an Antarctic Division.
• 1965: The first flight from NZ to Antarctica is made by a Royal New Zealand Air Force C130 (Hercules).
• 1968: Marie Derby becomes first NZ woman to work in Antarctica.
• 1969: The South Pole is visited on November 12 for the first time by women — four Americans, an Australian and Kiwi Pamela Young.
• 1972-74: First solo voyage to the continent by NZ-born yachtsman and author David Lewis.
• 1974: Joint NZ-France expedition makes first ascent and descent into the crater of Mt Erebus in December. Antarctic Museum Centre opens at Canterbury Museum.
• 1976: Thelma Rogers, of NZ’s DSIR, becomes the first woman to winter over on Antarctica.
• 1977: NZ proclaims Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nautical miles (370km), which provides for the zone to also include Ross Dependency waters.
• 1979: The Mt Erebus disaster – an Air NZ DC-10 crashes and 257 people die.
• 1980: NZ is a signatory to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which comes into effect in 1982.
• 1982: On January 20, Robert Muldoon becomes first PM of NZ to visit Antarctica. Antarctic Treaty nations meet in Wellington in June to discuss the exploitation of the continent’s minerals.
• 1996: Antarctica New Zealand is established on July 1 to manage the Government’s interests across the continent.
• 2006-07: Between October and January, New Zealanders Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald become the first people to walk to the South Pole without the aid of any supply dumps.
• 2007: PM Helen Clark and Sir Edmund Hillary, aged 87, travel with an official party to Scott Base to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding. First New Zealand Antarctic Medal awarded to geophysicist Dr Fred Davey.
