By Hamish Clark
Rochelle Stevenson was 14-years-old when her father left their Picton home, never to return on an ill-fated flight to Antarctica.
Thirty one years later, she’s excited to be following in his foot steps down to the ice and see Mt Erebus.
“Hopefully it is a great day, and we can see the mountain, and if weather permitting we will, that would be fantastic, love to see it, fly over the top of it,” says Ms Stevenson.
For three decades Mt Erebus has been a dark spot on the landscape for families of those who perished back in 1979.
Tomorrow’s flight for the 104 passengers will be an emotional one and a chance to help with the healing process.
“We have children that have just been born, we have grandchildren, we have brothers, sisters and so on, it's a very, very significant moment. People have been wanting this for a long, long time, I wish it had happened sooner,” says Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe.
The families will fly down for the day on an Air Force 757.
They will take part in a special service at the koru memorial overlooking Mt Erebus.
“We are going for six hours, including getting people 35 ks into Scott Base, the service, a brief lunch at Scott Base, a tour around Scott Base and back to the plane, so it is complex and we don't have beds for 100 people,” says Antarctica NZ CEO Lou Sanson.
With snow showers forecast for the morning the weather will be crucial to the missions success.
“At the moment, a little bit of a low passing through, some winds, higher winds this afternoon, but hope that they are going to drop off as forecast for tomorrow,” says RNZAF 40 Squadron leader Justin Senior.
The flight will leave at nine o'clock in the morning and take four and half hours to get to Scott Base. If the weather closes in and they have to turn around, they have until Saturday to get the families down to Antarctica.
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