The cabin Borchgrevink built 105 years ago still stands, and on its shelves are canned goods from the time he spent there. Now the Antarctic Heritage Trust of New Zealand is trying to preserve it and its role in history.

Rob Fenwick, chairman of the group, has recently been in Norway to drum up support as well, calling Borchgrevink's cabin "unique." He told newspaper Aftenposten that the cabin is partly in ruins today, with some of the roof blown away, and the structure also has suffered moisture damage and pollution caused by the excrement from a colony of local penguins.

Fenwick says the Antarctic Heritage Trust already has received support from the Getty Founation and the World Monument Fund in the US, and he hopes Norwegian and British sources will contribute as well.

Borchegrevink's expeditions were largely British-financed, which may explain why he never became well-known in his own country. Nor did he ever reach the South Pole, but he was knighted upon his return to Norway in 1902.

He did, however, discover the bay (Hvalbukta) from which Roald Amundsen based his trip to the South Pole. His cabin stands at Cape Adare, in the portion of Antarctica under the sights of New Zealand.

Fenwick's group also hopes to renovate cabins used by Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton.