First Vanda Party Leaves

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31868, 21 December 1968, Page 42

First Vanda Party Leaves

(N.Z. Press Association) i ( VANDA, Dec. 20. The first members of the first [ wintering party at the ■ New Zealand Vanda Station in the Wright ' Dry Valley left Scott Base by helicopter this morning. The men are Messrs R. Craig, of Wellington, a meteorologist, and S. Cutfield, of Auckland, a scientific officer. They will not return to Scott Base until next spring. Mr Cutfield, aged 24, who gained his M.Sc. at Auckland University this - year, will

carry out the main science programme at the station. He will study isotopes and the physical and chemical qualities of Lake Vanda, and make other hydrological and seismological studies and carry out a magnetic and earth-currents programme. Mr Craig, aged 24, who served two years on Campbell Island and a year at Raoul Island, will make three-hourly meteorological observations and will radio information to Scott Base and McMurdo Station every six hours. The acting meteorological observer at Vanda, Mr A. Bromley, of Wellington, is expected to return to Scott Base on January 6. Mi- Bromley has set up the equipment that Mr Craig will use. The other members of the first wintering team are

Messrs W. Lucy, of Timaru,! leader, W. Johns, of Gisborne, technician, and A. Riordan, a United States exchange scientist. Messrs Johns and Riordan are expected to arrive in Antarctica on January 4 and will be flown to Vanda Station on January 6. Mr Johns has just completed a two-year term on Campbell Island, where he was deputy leader in 1966-67 with Mr R. Foubister, this year’s Scott Base leader. Mr Riordan is from Denver, Colorado, but is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin, which has a reputation for meteorological work. Vanda Station’s first leader Mr Lucy, who is deputy leader for the summer season at Scott Base, is expected to move to Vanda in January.

Mr Lucy, is 32, has spent five summers and a winter | as a member of the New Zea-1 land Antarctic Research Programme. A registered surveyor, he has been responsible for much of the surveying and mapping done by New Zealand parties in the Ross Dependency. Between His visits south he spent a year in New Guinea, surveying, and before coming south 'his year he made two trips in the United States research ship U.S.N.S. Eltanin as an electronics technician. Finishing work has still to be completed at Vanda Station and this will be done by the winter party. The Governor-General (Sir Arthur Porritt) will open I Vanda Station on January 9. i