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| Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Ernest Shackleton's hut. Photo Video / Mike Scott |
The New Zealand PM had been visiting The Scott Base in Antarctica to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the site. Ardern was meant to have arrived back in Christchurch at around 1800 today, but the old Airforce Hercules broke down and was unable to make the return flight.
“It’s one thing to read on paper and many of us will have heard about the research that’s been that’s been conducted here - but to be able to come and see it in person and talk to those who are part of it was something else,” Jacinda Ardern told the NZ Herald, continuing: “The enthusiasm for the work, how committed and dedicated our researchers and scientists are is incredible. You can see why what they’re researching is so critical, not just to New Zealand, but to the world and it brings them back year after year.
Because all of this work is in vain if we don’t listen to what the science is telling us, and it’s telling us that this place is changing and that we have a hand in that. So our job is to support them to keep building the information we need - but our job is also to make decisions that factor in what they’re learning.”