Pene, Lillian (Gina’s daughter and Pene’s God daughter) and Gina in 2008.

Today Pene Greet and Gina Price are still friends. They now live in Wellington, New Zealand and Perth, Western Australia, not poles apart but a quarter of an earth rotation!

They are still connected by e-mail, as much of the world is now, although their communications are much less intimate and much less intense.

Pene and Gina both married scientists.

Gina Price

Gina and Malcolm Robb first met in Antarctica in 1985 when Malcolm was working as a marine scientist and visited Mawson Base for a day. They were friends in Alaska where Malcolm, originally from Australia, worked over a 15 year period. In 1992, when Gina was ready to leave Alaska, Malcolm proposed to follow her to anywhere in the world.

Gina and Malcolm were married near Paynes Find, Western Australia in 1993.

Malcolm, Lillian, Nansen and Gina hike the Root
Glacier, Kennicott, Alaska, 2008.

Pene and Murray were married in Townsville following the birth of their son William, in 2001.

They moved to Gina's home town of Perth and were married in the wild flowers of Western Australia, with Pene preparing Gina's natural bouquet. Children, Lillian (born 1994) and Nansen (born 1999) followed, and after working at Murdoch University for 6 years, Gina is now homeschooling both children.

The family visited Alaska in 2008 where they lived in a cabin in the woods near Hidden Hill, met all the Alaskan characters in Frost Bytes and experienced a limited amount of snow and ice (and the kids want more!)

Pene Greet

Pene returned to Antarctica for a winter at Davis in 1997. She continued working at the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart for a number of years. Pene moved from Australia to New Zealand over 2000-2001, with a six month trip followed by a permanent shift from Hobart in early 2001.

She and her partner Murray were married in her Mum’s backyard in Townsville following the birth of their son William in 2001. They now live in Wellington where Pene works part-time as an evaluator in a government department and picks William up from school each day. Wellington has had spectacular aurora on one evening in the eight years she’s lived there. The family enjoy regular visits to friends and family in Australia.

They traveled from Darwin to Broome when WiIliam was 4 and finished the trip off by calling in on Gina and her family in Perth. Maybe we’ll both make it to Antarctica, together, with our families...one day!

Mike Manion and Pene on the Davis lab roof in 1997.