On returning to Hut Point on 25 November, the search party found that the Northern Party had rescued itself and had returned safely to base.[149] Early in the morning of 10 February 1913, Atkinson and Pennell rowed into the New Zealand port of Oamaru, from where they sent a coded message back to the expedition's New Zealand agent, Joseph Kinsey, informing him of the fate of Scott and his party. Atkinson and Pennell then boarded a train to meet Terra Nova in Lyttelton near Christchurch.[150]