Rapid poleward excursions of auroras and associated ionospheric currents and ionospheric radio absorption are observed quite often at the South Pole Station (&lgr;m =-75¿). The auroral phenomena appear at the equatorward horizon and move rapidly (up to 3 km/s) toward the station, frequently passing overhead and proceeding farther poleward. We find that such an event typically occurs some 30-60 min after the onset of a substorm expansive phase as indicated by magnetic records from the auroral zone. We also find that these auroral excursions over South Pole Station are quite closely coincident with thickenings (recoveries) of the magnetotail plasma sheet observed by the ISEE 1 and 2 satellites at distances of 15-20 RE in the magnetotail. In short, these South Pole events have the signatures of the ''poleward leap'' of the auroral electrojet, a late feature of substorms that was identified several years ago primarily from auroral zone magnetic records and magnetotail plasma data and that has been taken to signify the retreat of the substorm neutral line outward through the tail. We argue that they are, indeed, further examples of that phenomenon, here manifested primarily by their high-latitude (polar cap) aspects. Identification of the poleward leap as such in data from the well-instrumented South Pole Station provides an important new opportunity and motivation to study this late-stage feature of substorms and its association with plasma phenomena in the magnetotail.