Arrival

We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand where we would pick up all our gear and eventually get on a plane to Antarctica. We had pretty much a day and a half of free time, but some of that was spent just getting on a normal sleep schedule. The earthquake from last February also dev
astated most of the downtown area which was completely fenced off for blocks at a time. I did wander around the botanic gardens there which were really nice as it is the beginning of spring there and all the flowers are starting to bloom. One of the days we had to stop by the CDC (clothing distribution center) near the airport to try one and pick up all our ECW (extreme cold weather) gear. We got our "Big Reds" (the oversized puffy red jackets with fur trimmed hoods - real fur in my lucky case, dingy matted faux fur in most people's case) and other warm and fuzzies. We also got our work uniforms which were just as unflattering as I imagined. The shirts are too-big royal blue polo shirts and the kitchen pants were not made for people with hips. I had to choose between pants that were a pain to get on or pants that had a crotch five inches lower than it is supposed to be. It also didn't help that the different brands had different sizing so you had to try on every single pair of pants you were issued. The next day we had to be all packed and ready to go by 6:15 am (apparently this is nice and late compared to other times people have gone down). Unfortunately the shuttles that were supposed to pick us up forgot about

our hotel so we waited around (luckily there were other people with me there) and finally had to call to see what was up. We were the last ones to make it to the airport, where we had to put on all our ECW gear (apparently the plane is pretty cold and we step out right away onto the ice) and sort out our luggage into checked, boomerang and carry on bags. Apparently they palette-tize all the bags so if the plane down "boomerangs" or

has to turn around because of bad weather conditions we only get one of our bags back. Then we have to weigh ourselves with all our luggage to make sure we don't go over the limit before we get our boarding passes which were very official looking necklace badges (see photo). Then they encouraged us to go get breakfast across the way at the "Antarctica Center," which is this total tourist trap type place where they have penguins and a wind chamber where you can feel the conditions of Antarctica and get your picture taken with one of the ice vehicles that are parked on the front lawn. I figured they only encouraged us to get breakfast there so we could be part of the attraction since we were wearing all our gear and such, but it was way to early for the facilities to be open anyway. Before we boarded we had to watch yet another safety video (in orientation we have already watched a number

and as it turned out we had more to look forward to once we arrived...I get it, it is really cold here and being outside can kill you...) and take buses over to the C17 we would be flying down there. It took a while to get everyone boarded and settled in the hollowed out plane with seats lining the sides and a chunk of regular airline seats plopped in the middle and right as everybody did they announced that due to weather we would not be taking off as scheduled. People were worried that we would be stuck in Christchurch an extra day , but half an hour later they said that we would be allowed to leave in an hour. Good news is we get to leave, bad news is we spend an extra hour stuck on the plane before we even begin our five and a half hour flight. The flight was pretty much like a commercial flight except we had air force guys as flight attendants (they did act out all the initial safety stuff like good sports), we had lots of space to get up and wander and there were no windows to look out. Luckily at one point we got to go up to the flight deck to see out the windshield and I saw my first glimpse of ice bergs

(and we were still at least an hour out from landing). The lack of windows also made landing a little strange as there were multiple times where I thought we had landed but it would just be them putting down the landing gear. The landing was actually very smooth, but it did take a while it to come to a stop. They opened up the back right away to unload the palettes and everybody was milling around putting on their gear and waiting to get out that one tiny little door to see what there was to see. When we finally did emerge I was met with one of the strangest sites I've seen. I have seen plenty of pictures and videos of the place, but none of them really prepares

you for the utter unfamiliarity of the landscape. The plane lands on an ice runway not in site of the station so you are surrounded by white plains with high, jagged peaks in the distance. Heavy machinery unloading bags and loading up people only added to the space-like quality of the place. We loaded up into "Deltas" which are huge beasts of machines that we sit in a little compartment in the back about 8 feet off the ground. The driving compartment is separate so the driver had to give us a radio for if we needed to communicate with him. The fumes from the vehicle gave me nausea and a headache, but there were many signs that said opening a window would let more fumes in so clearly people in the past had felt the same way and tried unsuccessfully to remedy the problem with "fresh air." We drive across the ice for about 15 minutes before we round the corner and see a really ugly smear across the otherwise untainted landscape. The station is on the backside of a large hill with tons of exposed dirt and industrial looking buildings and scrap wood and metal lying around. The view of the base itself is nothing worth seeing, but the view from the base out is amazing. You can see across this vast sea of ice to an outcropping on the other side with those same jagged mountains shooting up. You can also see the huge Mt. Erebus volcano, which is pretty spectacular coming up from the otherwise completely flat landscape. The sun never fully sets anymore so there are long hours of twilight

and I did see a few pink clouds. While it is quite cold and there is lots of snow everywhere, it is no more extreme than an average winter day in Chicago. However when I went to pick up my luggage from another building I regretted not wearing my Big Red as the wind picked up and that made conditions more like a bad winter day in Chicago. Other random things about the place: it is incredibly dry...your skin just begs for moisture all the time and every morning means waking up to the worst dry mouth.

Anyway, that's all by way of introduction...more to come later.