The Abominable Snow-Woman

Published in 1969 this book tells of Dorothy Braxton's story of reaching Antarctica. She talks a lot about the “petticoat ban”, which she calls the establishment's prevention of women travelling to the American and New Zealand Antarctic bases back in the 1950s, when they were considered no place for women.

Born in the far south of New Zealand, Braxton had already broken barriers and become a female reporter for the newspaper, and then moved to Christchurch, in the same work. She constantly pestered the US Antarctic authorities (who have a base in Christchurch) and the NZ Antarctic authorities for permission, but was constantly refused.

Finally she saw some hope in a tourist voyage - the first commercial venture given permission to trial landing at Antarctica, organised by the Swedish-American Lars Lindblad in 1966. Lindblad was a pioneering adventure tourism operator who had many firsts to his name.

I won't spoil the details of her trip too much, but the route was from Bluff to Auckland Islands (NZ), Campbell Island (NZ) to Antarctica (visiting the US base Haslett, then US base McMurdo and the NZ Scott Base). On the return voyage they visited the Balleny Islands (part of the NZ Antarctic territory claim), then Macquarie Island (Australia) and returning to Bluff.

The book is well constructed, as you might expect from a journalist. It maintains a pace, doesn't dwell too long on any of the aspects covered - be that history, scientific research, the bases, albatross and other birdlife, the goings on on the ship, shipwreck history, details of penguins, whales and sea lions and elephant seals. Her background and experiences are restrained to the relevant details only.

There are a fair number of black and white photographs which accompany the narrative. They are pretty good for the era of the book. On the inside cover is a decent map of the journey too, which is definitely a plus. I found a photo of the icebreaker online: Magga Dan

I suppose I enjoyed this book more than most as I was luck enough to go on a similar trip that excluded Antarctica itself, but took in the Auckland Islands, Campbell Island and Macquarie Island a couple of years back, in a similar ship with a similar adventure tourism setup. Most reassuringly very little has changed on these very special isolated pockets of history, other than the eradication of introduced pests and food source animals from most of the islands now, and the continued improvement of those animals close to extinction in Braxton's time.

I am sure this is a relatively obscure book, short print run for the NZ market (perhaps Australia too), but it is worth picking up if you see a dusty copy in a second hand bookshop!

4 stars