"They Rest in the Great
White Silence of Antarctica
Amid the Scenes of Their Triumph,
Wrapped in the Winding Sheet
Of the Eternal Snows."
My apologies to the Girl Guides of Queenstown, for my inability to find their letterbox in the public gardens. But my thanks for bringing me to the gorgeous gardens, which I never would have visited otherwise. And even if I'd visited, I might not have made it almost to the end to see this monument. The stars form the Southern Cross. The text reads:
Erected. With Funds collected by the 42nd
Company Senior Cadets
To Commemorate
The Patient, Stubborn, Invincible
Courage,
The Loyal Comradeship
And Brilliant Achievement
of
Captain Robert Falcon Scott,
C.V.O.R.N.
Dr. Edwin Adrian Wilson, F.Z.S.
Captain Lawrence E. G. Oates,
Inniskilling Dragoons,
Lieut. Henry R. Bowers, R.I.M.
and
Petty Officer Edgar Evans, R.N.
Who Reached the
South Pole
On January 17th, 1912, and Perished
On the Return Journey.
They Rest in the Great
White Silence of Antarctica
Amid the Scenes of Their Triumph,
Wrapped in the Winding Sheet
Of the Eternal Snows.
Sub Umbra Crucis.
There's a nice article about the monument from a 1935 issue of New Zealand Railways Magazine
here. 