Ross Dependency

My second attempt at getting a card from Ross Dependency, with a pretty spectac payoff with this card of an explorer from the 1910–1913 Antarctic Expedition sledding past a glacier in front of Mount Erebus. Mount Erebus is the most southerly volcano in the world and, despite it’s remote location, is regularly studied by the nearby McMurdo and Scott research stations on nearby Ross Island.

This completes my collection of Antarctic postal agencies. It's the first complete continent in my collection! Perhaps not the greatest feat when there are just four postal agencies for the continent (Australian Antarctic Territory, British Antarctic Territory, French Antarctic and Southern Lands, Ross Dependency), but my first continent nonetheless! :-)

Quite interestingly for avid postcards nerds like myself, it would seem that the postcard actually did make it all the way to Antarctica, judging by all the extra expedition stamps that made it on to the card. — Ross Dependency is New Zealand’s Antarctic territory. In the past, Ross Dependency post was all processed in Christchurch, on mainland New Zealand, and was never sent for processing in Antarctica. Even if the mail was actually send from an Antarctic research base, post was sent to Christchurch (and cancellation stamps would say “Christchurch”). Now, the cancellation says “Ross Dependency” and has come along with stamps from New Zealand’s Scott Base. Colour me one happy postcard camper!