Southbound

I'm beginning my 13th season on the Ice and my 11th journey south. Every season's flight is very different, and this year is no exception. I would have preferred to fly on the C-17, but instead I arrived on the A-319 Airbus. It's funny though how a little experience helps one have a better flight. I lined up where I needed to after the safety briefing in Christchurch and got a good seat on the bus to the plane, which in turn, got me
a great seat on the flight.

 
About 3.5 hours into the flight, we started to fly over the Transantarctic Mountains, which form the spine of the Antarctic continent. I never tire of this view of the mountains and glaciers. There is a Qantas flight that makes a similar route to ours on New Years Eve and that costs approximately $10,000 per person. Yes, I get paid to make this flight!


Once we start veering toward Ross Island (where McMurdo is located) we start flying over McMurdo Sound. There are lots of icebergs this season. Although they look smallish, each of these is probably about
the size of a city block.


I've seen this view many times, being on the ramp, (this would be called the tarmac at regular airports) but I don't get to see it often from inside a plane. It doesn't look that much different from last year, although I believe the Ice Runway is a bit closer to Scott Base this year.


This is the typical shot of folks leaving the plane after arriving from the Ice. I was contacted by a representative from the NSF (National Science Foundation) for a photo just like this for one of their early season documents. I submitted it, so I hope it gets used.

Serious Lamb Burger

My very long flights from the States to New Zealand didn't leave me any time on the 29th to see anything, anyone or get anything done in Christchurch. Also, as a result of the time change in New Zealand, I lost an hour of sleep as well. After four full hours of sleep, I rose and was whisked away by shuttle to the CDC for my clothing issue, and orientation at the Sudima Hotel. Clothing of course went very smoothly, but I had to plan a bit differently since my one bag with most of my clothing did not arrive with me in Auckland. What frustrates me is the fact that they have no idea where it is. I hope it shows up before I head to the Ice. While we were on break during our orientation session, me and a couple of friends headed to a new McDonalds nearby. It's been built since the quake and I think it used to be CalTex petro station. Anyway, I like to try new things and they certainly had a new thing on the menu. The Serious Lamb Burger! Ok...to understand this, you have to understand the Kiwis. They love beets (beet root) and fried eggs on their hamburgers. They also love lamb. So, what they did was combine their regular Kiwi Burger (which is beef) with lamb and made essentially a LambBurger! It was...ok. Not the greatest thing in the world, but not truly horrible either. However, I don't think I'll be jonesing for one during the next five months!

The Powell Recovery Center

I arrived in Christchurch and was lucky enough to be met at the Clothing
Distribution Centre by our friends, Christine and Antz. They live in Southshore,
on the beach, and have been nice enough to take in Lynn and our friend,
Kaska for the past few nights. When we drove from the airport area to their
house, I could see a lot of damage, but we weren't able to drive into the
Central Business District where much of the major damage occurred. They
have a beautiful cozy house a block from the beach. I visited here last year
and they're wonderful hosts.


Antz is essentially an electronic genius! Even though the house had no
running water or electricity due to the earthquake, Antz was able to hook
up the generator, phone service and even internet. I'm pretty sure that
no one else in the neighborhood had these luxuries.


I was very impressed with the City of Christchurch's and New Zealand's
ability to make things work. Even though the power was still out, porta potties
were placed on every other block, giving at least a small bit of comfort to
the residents. In general, the folks in New Zealand are keeping a Stiff Upper
Lip and are struggling through this.

Earthquake in Christchurch

At 12:51 pm today, a 6.3 earthquake hit Christchurch. It was centered
near Lyttelton, and only 3 miles deep. Very bad news. What is worse is
that Lynn is IN Christchurch. Of course I was very worried. It was several
hours until I heard anything, but then our friend Leighton from the
Antarctic Centre called and Lynn was with him. She told me that she
and our friend Brenda were going to meet another friend, Natalie to
go shopping. They were in the lobby of the Hotel So, where they were
staying, when all heck broke loose. They were thrown into the wall and
then they ran out into the street. Destruction was all around. Lynn
said it literally looked like a war zone. What's worse, all of her stuff
is in her hotel room, including her computer and passport and she
probably won't get it back because the Grand Chancellor Hotel, where
we've stayed before is LEANING on the Hotel So! It's the second tallest
building in Christchurch (almost 30 stories) so if it goes down, it's going
to take a lot of buildings with it, including the Hotel So.

After getting their wits about them, Lynn and Brenda, joined by our
friends Jamie, Matt and Kaska (who was barefoot) walked through the
rubble, all the way to the Antarctic Centre/Clothing Distribution Centre (CDC)
(about 6 miles). It proved to be a good meeting point for many other Ice
folks as well and is acting as kind of a command centre for USAP folks
who have recently left the Ice. That's where she found Leighton and
was able to phone me on the Ice.

In the meantime, Christchurch is a mess. This is a much more destructive
quake than the one that struck in September. The entire Central Business
District is closed off, including all of the hotels USAP people stay at and
nobody is allowed there. Dozens of people have been killed and many many
more are missing. Lynn will be staying at the CDC for at least tonight
and probably a few more nights as well.

Facebook has become a huge connector of people during the crisis and
some folks have started a spreadsheet charting the whereabouts of Ice
people who are in Christchurch. So far, everyone is safe and no one from
the programme has been injured.

It's going to be a long few days/weeks/months for Christchurch. Our prayers
and thoughts are with our friends and people we haven't met. Lynn is safe.
Our friends our safe. Not all have been so lucky. Please think of them and
pray for them.

Off The Ice...With Perks!

Today I completed my 10th season on the Ice! Ten seasons of a
very different lifestyle, yet one I enjoy. There were only six of us
ATO folks leaving today. Because we're in ATO and we're in charge
of the bags being loaded onto the plane, our bags got to go on top
of the baggage pallet. More about this later. Usually all ATO employees
get to go out on our own separate transport, but because there were
only six of us, and three were working the plane, loading and unloading
cargo, only Amy, Melanie and I were riding out to Pegasus Airfield.
Supply Melanie though was nice enough to reserve us our own seats
at the front of Ivan, so we got a special ride anyway. When we got
out to Pegasus, we milled with the other folks on our plane (99 in all)
and waited to board. Then, unexpectedly, Bear called our names on
the radio and we got to board the C-17 first, getting the seats we
wanted. In that case, Melanie and I wanted a seat on the side with
a outlet to plug our electronics into. The ride back to Christchurch
was pretty uneventful and five hours later we were in 75 degree weather
and sunny skies. Because our bags were on top of the baggage pallet,
they were amongst the first onto to conveyer belt and for the first
time ever, I was the first one from our plane through customs! I
believe this is Karma since a few years ago, I was pulled aside on a
random search and spent 45 minutes telling someone what everything
in my bag was. So we walked over to the CDC (Clothing Distribution
Center) which is always good since we've been sitting for the last
five hours. I turned in all my gear, got my hotel reservations and
again, all six of us ATO folks were on the first shuttle leaving the
building! My room at the Hotel So is very pleasant but we were hungry
Amy, Melanie and I went to Bailie's. Bailie's isn't my usual hangout
but it's a traditional watering hole for Ice folks. We got food and
was surprised when Susie appeared! She was on her way home and
saw us go into the Bar. She bought me a drink in thanks for my work
the last day, closing out Air Services for the season. We joined other
Ice folks and then I called it a night. A long day, but very satisfying.
Another season completed,

Whew!

Because I'm probably headed south to the
Ice tomorrow, I ran my butt off silly
around Christchurch trying to get everything
done:
1. Go get per diem money at the CDC
2. Go to breakfast with Tad and Ken
3. Walk around Botanic Gardens taking photos
4. Eat a Souvlaki from Dimitri's
5. Buy cheese at the Cheese Monger
6. Buy Gunpowder Tea at Asian Store
7. Look at Maps at Map World
8. Ride bus to Lyttelton
9. Drink Long Black at The Ground
10. Ride bus from Lyttelton to Christchurch
11. Drop off Library Books
12. Eat takeaway from Thai Smile
13. Do laundry at hotel
14. Sleep
15. Whew!

Surfing Buddhists?

Since I knew I wasn't going down to the Ice today,
after picking up my per diem at the CDC I headed out
to one of my favorite places in New Zealand...the town
of New Brighton and it's Library. Easily reached by bus
from Central Christchurch, it's a pleasant little spot on
the Pacific and their library is one of my favorites in the
world. Plus...they also have free wireless internet. Not
a bad thing. This is the view I looked at for several hours,
sitting in a nice comfortable chair, staying connected with
the rest of the world.


Even relaxation can get tiresome after a while and I
decided to take a stroll on the pier, snapping a few
photos along the way. I was stopped by two Buddhist
monks and one asked me if I would like to have my
photo taken with his master. Sure, I said, always
trying to meet new people and see different cultures.
I think they thought that I was taking their photo on
the pier, but to be honest, I didn't even see them until
they spoke to me. Very nice guys.

Christchurch is such an international and always
interesting place and it's never surprising what you'll
see here. In these few short days, I've seen Buddhist
Monks walking on a pier, a woman wearing a burqa,
a little person acrobatically riding a skateboard in
Cathedral Square and a man riding a unicycle down
the street as his form of transportation.


After walking farther down the pier, I watched a dozen
or so fishermen of Japanese descent plucking fish and
crabs from the water with both long fishing poles and
bucket type crab traps. Interesting to watch. Also
interesting though, were the half a dozen or so surfers
that were braving the bitter cold water of the Pacific.
It's always fun to watch the surfers but even more fun
to watch them from the vantage point of the pier, where
you can see from above and behind them instead of
just from the shore.

Mixed Emotions

It was nice to be able to sleep in a bit today as I knew
I wasn't going to be flying. I've been going to be pretty
early though as I'm trying to catch up from the lack of
sleep I received on the plane ride across the Pacific, so
I got up around 7:30am anyway. When I turned on the
television, I learned from One News that there had been
a 7.9 earthquake off the coast of Samoa and that a
tsunami had occurred. Tsunamis are taken very seriously
in New Zealand since it is an island nation and reports
stated that a wave from 1-3 meters was headed this way!
New Zealand also has very strong connections to all of
the other nations of the Pacific, no matter how small since
many of it's residents live on these islands and vice versa.
New Zealand is the 'big city" for many of these islands.
The time came when the waves would be arriving on one
of the North Island's capes and it turned out that the wave
was less than 1 meter, causing no damage, or loss of life
by the time it reached NZ. There were no reports of any
waves on the South Island but I'm guessing that the damage
in Samoa was considerable.

I decided to spend the day at the Borders Store in Riccarton
Mall since I wanted to do some research for some traveling
we want to do after I get off the Ice. Little did I know that
there is a school holiday going on and the mall was packed
with screaming kids. Ugh. I grinned and bore it, trying to
keep a "half full" attitude. One nice thing about Christchurch
is there is a very Asian culture here so you can find Asian
food almost everywhere. And at this mall, it's no exception
as I enjoyed good, cheap Sushi for lunch. YUM! I did my
research at the bookstore, drank some coffee and headed
home to the hotel. There I received a very nice surprise!
The plane scheduled to go down to the Ice had a small,
non-life-threatening mechanical problem and had to turn
around (called a boomerang) after an hour in the air. This
meant that I would not be flying tomorrow either! YAY!
The note also said that I would have to go back out to the
CDC in the morning to get more per diem money (about
$60US/$80kiwi). The earliest I'll be leaving for the Ice now
is on October 2nd (October 1st in the States)!

Enjoying Christchurch

I received a surprise this morning when I saw my
friends, Dave and Kelly. Not a surprise that they
were staying in the same hotel as I am since I saw
them the evening before. No, their presence meant
that their flight had been delayed and as a result,
my flight is now delayed since I'm on the flight
after them. Woo Hoo! I had a pretty uneventful
morning as I headed out to the Clothing Distribution
Center (CDC) to pack up a few boxes to send home
and spend some time on the internet before being
issued my Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear.
I exchanged some things, which for some reason
the size I was given would have fit me when I was
about 10 years old, but I got my Spring Jacket
(Little Red) which Lynn I discussed whether I would
get this year or not, so everything went smoothly.
I got back to town at about 2pm and it had turned
into a really nice afternoon. Lots of flowers around
since it's Spring here. I enjoyed another meal of
Indian food and called it an early night, but it's nice
knowing I won't have to get up early in the morning
since I know I won't be flying!

I'm in New Zealand

After a very long trip, I'm in New Zealand. More precisely, I'm in
Christchurch. This is my 8th trip flying from the States to New
Zealand and I'm getting ready for my 10th season on the Ice.
Lynn won't be with me this season as she's taking the season off,
staying in Grand Junction. However, I'm sure I'll be very busy and
it will go quickly. As usual, it seems, it's very rainy and cool in
Christchurch. I'm sure that the weather here won't affect the
first flight going out tomorrow, but weather on the Ice might.
I've checked into the Hotel Grand Chancellor. It's a very nice
place and I have lots of room, my own bathroom and television.
Things you definitely can't take for granted in some of the hotels
that are offered when we stay in Christchurch. I went to Countdown
this afternoon and picked up some goodies that I'll want on the
Ice and managed to keep it down to a reasonable price since
everything is very expensive. Blame the stock market on the bad
dollar exchange. When the stock market does well, the dollar does
poorly on the international (and NZ market) Tomorrow is
ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) clothing issue day. It should go
smoothly.