Lunch of Significance : 2nd Nov. 2007

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Restoration and Preservation The Ireland Fund of New Zealand, in association with the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust hosted the Lunch of Significance in Auckland. The event was held to support the restoration and preservation of the expedition bases of the first explorers of the Antarctic Continent.

Guest of honour at the lunch was Irish President Mary McAleese, President of Ireland who was on a State Visit to New Zealand. Unfortunately Sir Edmund Hillary, First Conqueror of Mt. Everest, and himself an Antarctic explorer, was unable to attend and he was represented by his wife Lady June Hillary.

The Ties that Bind Two Countries In her address at the lunch, President McAleese spoke at length of the ties that bind the two countries, particularly in reference to Antarctica and also about ancestral links through immigration, their shared contributions and losses in World War I and rugby. In speaking of The Ireland New Zealand ties with Antarctica the President referred to the three men – Ernest Shackleton from Kildare, Frank Worsley from New Zealand and Tom Crean from Kerry – who traversed the savage terrain of South Georgia’s snow capped mountains, laced with glaciers and whipped with freezing winds and travelled 64km in 36 hours to get help after their shipmates became stranded, following the ill-fated trip by the vessel Endurance in 1914.

The lunch was a huge success with $30,000 raised in addition to the $100,000 pledged by the Government of Ireland as a contribution to the restoration and preservation of the Shackleton and Scott huts in Antarctica.

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Photo Index

1. Lady June Hillary presents President McAleese with a framed New Zealand $5 note; personally signed by Sir Edmund Hillary. He is the only living New Zealander who appears on a New Zealand bank note.
2. Sir Edmund Hillary
3. Rodney Walshe, Trustee of the IFNZ and MC at the lunch
4. Nigel McKenna, Chairman of the IFNZ
5. President McAleese
6. Shackleton’s Ship Endeavour, icebound
7. Sir Edmund Hillary at Shackleton’s hut in Antartctica