The 93-year-old daughter of Antarctic explorer Edward Nelson has died on board a New Zealand tour ship just days before revisiting the site of her father's field laboratory.
Barbara Johns was the daughter of Edward Nelson, a biologist who survived Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated expedition to Antarctica in 1912.
She died early on Wednesday after falling and hitting her head on on board the Spirit of Enderby during a storm near Macquarie Island, between Australia and the Antarctic, the Dominion Post reported.
Expedition leader Rodney Russ said yesterday that the boat would continue its journey to Antarctica, about 300km away.
Mrs Johns, an Englishwoman who lived in Spain, was extremely excited about visiting the site of her father's laboratory, he said.
Her son, Andrew Hay, 65, was with her when she died.
Edward Nelson was the biologist on Scott's Terra Nova expedition, which ended in the death of the explorer on his way back from the South Pole in 1912.
