Antarctica Take 1

Greetings from the continent of ice. This place is amazing who would have thought a place that is majority white would be this beautiful . We flew down on 11/10 in a C17 with a helicopter on board. It was a flight unlike most intercontental flights, the fight attendents were with the New Zealand Air Force and they provided little service and uncomfortable jump seats. It is about a 5 hour flight from Christchurch NZ to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The plane had windows on the doors and the views out were amazing as we approached the continent. The plane landed on an ice shelf and Ivan the Terror bus picked us up and took us to McMurdo Station.



Ryan was waiting in town for me when I arrived. It was great to see him after a month and a half. I have quickly taken over the room and made it smell better with the help of some candles.

My first day on the ice I went to Happy Camper School. We got to experience a field camp situation with overnight camping, cooking on stoves and building snow structures to protect us from the wind. It was a great experience some in the group of 20 were not used to cold weather and are headed out to the field for 6 weeks... (should be intersting...)

As for my actual job down here, I am a general assistant for the Carpentry shop, which means I get to play with tools and make various wooden items for scientists at thier field camps or items that go around the station. I am really enjoying working with my hands and piciking it up relativly quickly... i can see a new hobby in my future. Hopefully I will get the chance soon to go out and work at one of the field camps and see other beautiful locations on the continent. (Today I got my first taste and got the chance to set up a big Jamesway tent today at teh willy airfield.)

There is an endless amount of things to do down here, we work 9 hour day, six days a week, but there is a plethroa of activities from Tap Dance to Yoga each night. I helped clear the Observation Trail on Sunday as part of the second official Antarctic Trail Day. Each week there is a couple of science lectures each week and it is great to have a better understanding of the projects that are down here. Just about everything you can think of is being studied here.

I got to see some seals sunning themselves the other day near the New Zealand Station Scott base. But no live penguins so far…