- SYDNEY: A supply vessel that sails between the mainland and Australia's Antarctic bases will have to make two trips instead of one because someone aboard the MV Aurora Australis forgot to pack the ship-to-shore hose used to refill fuel tanks on Macquarie Island, news reports said Wednesday.
The astonishing oversight — it is a very long hose — is to add 3,000 kilometers to the journey and over 500,000 Australian dollars ($460,000) to the bill, Australia's AAP news agency reported from Hobart, Tasmania. "It was a critical piece of equipment that was required but it was inadvertently left behind," an Australian Antarctic Division spokeswoman admitted. "The ship will go to Davis, then return to Hobart to load the missing cargo and then go back down to Macquarie Island."