It may be Christmas Day tomorrow but scientists and staff at Antarctica's Scott Base will still be out taking readings and keeping things running.
Scott Base is a series of interlinked buildings, and is painted a distinctive shade of green, Resene Chelsea Cucumber. Photo: RNZ / Alison Ballance
There are 31 staff at the facility, and winter base leader Kitty Niven told Morning Report all was well leading up to Christmas Eve.
"We have traditional Christmas dinner tomorrow, all the usual kind of trimmings, ham turkey and steak and probably a few surprises that our chefs will put together.
"We still have people who have to do their jobs on the day - keep taking scientific readings or keeping the base running" - Kitty Niven
"Then we also have a secret Santa where people have been making presents for each other out of found objects and bits and pieces then we all get together and chill out after a big meal."
"We still have people who have to do their jobs on the day - keep taking scientific readings or keeping the base running ... so most people don't get a full kind of day off - obviously our chefs will be working, but we do try and get some time off during the weekend to just relax a bit."
There was recently a Covid-19 outbreak at a Chilean research station on Antarctica, but New Zealand's mission to the frozen continent said it wouldn't be changing its Covid-19 response yet.
Niven said Antarctica New Zealand had a "really rigourous process about making sure Covid does not get to the base".
"Everybody who is here spent two weeks in isolation before coming here and then once here, anyone who is new to the base is separated from everyone else - we have separate bathrooms, separate areas, we practice social distancing, they have to wear face masks until they get the all clear, so we have multiple barriers making sure nothing gets through."