New Zealand has a near-century old toehold in Antarctica. It will cost $150m to keep it.

In the 1980s, when the ozone hole was the most important research effort underway in Antarctica, a new lab was tacked on to the west end of Scott Base. Important physics and meteorological research got done there.

The ozone hole is shrinking these days and the west-end lab, named after famed Antarctic scientist Trevor Hatherton, is under-utilised. Some meteorological and atmospheric monitoring still occurs there and the IT department has moved in. But it's rundown and under used.

The colours of ice: The Ross Sea ice brings scientists south to explore its many forms. The colours of ice: The Ross Sea ice brings scientists south to explore its many forms.

Meanwhile, climate change has become the most pressing science problem facing the southern continent. To accommodate this research, Antarctica New Zealand completed a $6.2 million upgrade and extension of the Hillary Field Centre (HFC) on the northeast end of Scott Base in 2015.

The bright and modern HFC fizzes as scientists and their guides gear up for expeditions onto continental Antarctica, the Ice or the Ross Sea. The HFC operates on ‘just-in-time’ principles: one team has to vacate a lab or garage stall quickly because another is coming and needs the space. Gear such as tents must be quickly dried, repaired and prepped for the next crew that's camping out.

It takes a few minutes to walk between the old Hatherton lab and the new HFC, but it's not a journey from old to new. Rather, it's a walk through the adequate.

Steve ‘Sooty’ Denby walks the main hall at Scott Base. The photos on the wall show the crews that have over-wintered at New Zealand’s Antarctic base every year for decades. Steve ‘Sooty’ Denby walks the main hall at Scott Base. The photos on the wall show the crews that have over-wintered at New Zealand’s Antarctic base every year for decades.

These in-between areas have been good enough to keep people alive in the grim, awful cold of Antarctica. They've been good enough to produce some world-class science. They've been good enough to keep New Zealand's sovereignty claim intact, should that ever be needed.

Q Hut, for example, is a decades-old, two-storey accommodation unit that's a lot like a cheap backpackers. Visitors and staff sleep four to a room in bunk beds with almost no personal storage.

Visitors and staff remove their shoes before entering bedrooms to avoid awakening sleepers. Sound is a problem at Scott Base. Visitors and staff remove their shoes before entering bedrooms to avoid awakening sleepers. Sound is a problem at Scott Base.

Because the construction method was poor by today's standards, Q Hut is expensive to heat and noise seems to amplify as it bounces around the structure.

Meanwhile, visitors and staff share toilets and showers across the hallway. They're clean thanks to hard-working domestic staff but no place to linger. So, adequate.

No doubt rational decisions were made when these facilities were designed and built. But the result today is a base that's rambling, inefficient and irrational.

Simon Trotter, general manager of Antarctic operations, expects some pretty funky ideas will come out of the design phase for a rebuilt Scott Base. Simon Trotter, general manager of Antarctic operations, expects some pretty funky ideas will come out of the design phase for a rebuilt Scott Base.

The best that can be said is that getting from one end of Scott Base to the other doesn't require a trip outside, not including some outbuildings and storage.

This is significantly better than the 100+ separate buildings at McMurdo Station, the nearby US polar base.

"We've got infrastructure here that's at the end of its working life," says Simon Trotter, general manager of Antarctic operations for the state-owned entity.

The Scott Base crew gather in the Tatty Flag bar for a presentation on outdoor operations in Greenland. Drinks flowed later. The Scott Base crew gather in the Tatty Flag bar for a presentation on outdoor operations in Greenland. Drinks flowed later.

"Since the 1970s, we've replaced like for like and maintained an infrastructure that supports our seasonal programme through the summer. During the winter months, we pretty much go through a maintenance phase to [bring] the base back up to spec," he says.