This is a timeline of the History of New Zealand's involvement with Antarctica.

18th and 19th centuries

1770s

• Captain James Cook and the crews of his expedition's ships, Resolution and Adventure, become the first explorers to cross the Antarctic Circle

1770s - 1830s

• Sealers and Whalers arrive in New Zealand

1839

• The Balleny Islands discovered by English whaling captains John Balleny and Thomas Freeman

1841

• Ross Sea and Mount Erebus discovered by James Clark Ross

1895

• New Zealander Alexander von Tunzelmann becomes the first person to set foot on Antarctica, at Cape Adare

1899

• British expedition led by Carstens Borchgrevink, including several New Zealanders, establishes first base in antarctica, at Cape Adare

1900s

1902

• Scott Island (formerly Markham Island) was discovered and landed upon by Captain William Colbeck

1910s

1910

• Robert Falcon Scott leaves for Antarctica from Port Chalmers. Scott's party later died on the return journey after being delayed by a blizzard

1920s

1923

• Ross Dependency proclaimed

1928

• US Navy Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd leaves Dunedin for the first sea-air exploration expedition to the Antarctic. Byrd overflew the South Pole with pilot Bernt Balchen on November 28 and 29, 1929, to match his overflight of the North Pole in 1926. Establishes base at Little America

1929

• Combined UK-Australia-NZ expedition led by Douglas Mawson

1930s

1933

• New Zealand Antarctic Society founded

1934

• Byrd becomes first person to winter over on the continent

1940s

1949

• First publication of New Zealand Antarctic Society quarterly journal, Antarctic

1950s

1956

• McMurdo Station established; construction of both Scott Base and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station started

1957

• International Geophysical Year
• Scott Base established in Ross Dependency
• Edmund Hillary leads an expedition using farm tractors equipped for polar travel, arrived at the Pole, the first expedition since Scott's to reach the South Pole over land

1958

• United States Operation Deep Freeze starts, based in Christchurch

1959

• New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research established an Antarctic Division
• Antarctic Treaty signed with other countries involved in scientific exploration in Antarctica

1960s

1965

• The first flight from New Zealand to Antarctica made by a Royal New Zealand Air Force C130 (Hercules) aircraft

1968

• Marie Derby becomes first New Zealand woman to work in the Antarctic.

1969

• Vanda Station manned for the first time
• South Pole visited for the first time by women - four Americans, an Australian, and New Zealander Pamela Young

1970s

1970

• Antarctic Amendment Act comes into force

1974

• Joint NZ-France expedition makes first ascent, and descent into crater, of Mount Erebus

1977

• New Zealand proclaims Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nautical miles, which provides for the zone to also include Ross Dependency's waters

1979

• Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashes on Mount Erebus, Antarctica, 257 people die

1980s

1982

• Robert Muldoon becomes the first Prime Minister of New Zealand to visit Antarctica

1987

• Closure of Scott Base Post Office (reopened in 1994)

1990s

1995

• Closure of Vanda Station

2000s