The Adventures Continue!

New Zealand 2010

Ryan and I spent two weeks in New Zealand this past year. We enjoyed beautiful hikes, torrential downpours and endless ocean. Landscapes.

The first adventure began with the Travers-Sabine Track.

The 80 km Travers–Sabine Circuit reaches deep into the heart of the mountains of Nelson Lakes National Park. Tranquil beech forests, fields of waving tussocks, 2000 metre-high mountains and clear rushing streams are highlights of the journey.

We spent four days hiking from the valley bottom up and over the steep Travers pass then back down to the confluence of the East Sabine and Main Sabine River. Back up to Blue lake then down to the Lake Rotoroa.








The start of the Travers Sabine on the valley floor.






Ryan points out where we are headed.












Ryan amongst the mossy Beach Trees.























Upper Travers Hut - Our accommodations on night two.







Ryan and I capturing the moment at the Traves Summit.




The bluest water of the West Sabine River.




After a successful trek on the Travers - Sabine we headed up to a quaint town of Takaka. We stayed at the perfect hostel , Shambala . We set up our tents that overlooked the ocean. We walked to the famous Mussel Inn and devoured a delicious plate of New Zealand Green lipped mussels then chased them with their delicious microbrew.



The following day we began a trek along the Able Tasman and enjoyed camping on the Mutton Cove beach. I spent some time swimming laps in the ocean.



Overlooking the ocean on the way to Mutton Cove.





Found a penguin on the beach, this one was not doing so well.






 

Wicked!!!

"THE WONDERFUL WIZARDS GREEN EXLIXIR MORNING CURE-ALL ONE SIP NEVER -FAIL"

A night in Sydney alone lead me to something so WICKEDly delightful. In celebration of the most special ladies day, we  went to the Broadway musical WICKED.

The favorite Baskin Robins flavor, Gold Medal Ribbon, was enjoyed prior to the show.

I have to thank the mother and daugher I met at the ticket raffle for reminding me why I needed to buy my ticket!

If you have the opportunity to see the show, don tmiss the chance!

Happy Holidays!

It is was a Merry Christmas and will be a Happy Holidays!
It seams that everyone is very difficult to reach this time of year, so my apologies for the lack of phone calls. I hope everyone has had a fabulous holiday season and is ready for what 2010 will bring. I have been quite busy this season since the last update.

Nov 5 – Took a flight to Cape Royds to set up one of the outhouse I built during winfly. Cape Royds has a large penguin rookery a lot of research is done here. It was fitting that we placed the outhouse with the penguin shaped window at Royds.

Cape Royds may sound familiar to the Scotch drinkers of the world.  Yes this is the location that the Scotch was found under the floor board of the Nimrod hut from Shackletons visit in 1909. We had the opportunity to take a peek inside, but we did not check under the floorboards for the aged liquor. It is shocking that over 15 people lived inside this small hut. It is in great condition thanks to the help of the New Zealand Antarctic Trust.   You can see the shelves are still stacked with 100 year old food.

 
November 18 - 21 South Pole Station
Shortly after my trip to Cape Royds I took off to South Pole Station (9,000')  to acclimatize for the set up of a deep field camp, AGAP, that is located at 11,000 feet. I am really excited I got the chance to visit South Pole Station. I experienced a warm welcome from the Polies that worked in McMurdo during winfly this season.  The Station is quite reminiscent of a Space Station I worked on when I was at Space Camp.

While I was there I also got the opportunity to see the old South Pole Station Dome before it was dismantled.

It is one thing to say you have been to South Pole but it is not official until you have taken your picture by the Ceremonial Pole.  I could not resist the cartwheel.




This is the Ceremonial Pole but the actual Geographic Pole is located just off the the Ceremonial pole. The geographic pole move aprox 10 meters per year.

November 21 - December 2 AGAP
The GAP – AGAP (Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province). The mission for those of us who chose to accept it was to dig out the camp that was left up over winter. This doesn’t sound half bad but when there is no machine support there was a lot of  D-1, hand shoveling. Shoveling at 11,000’ + requires many rest between scoops as we shoveled snow out away from the buildings and over 6’ walls of snow.

Life at camp was enjoyable with lots of good people. Thanksgiving dinner was created by our fabulous camp chef who created the entire feast on white gas Colman stoves. A new friend, Kara and I; were on Truffle duty. I believe everyone one at camp loved the decadent treat.

December 5 Pressure Ridge Tour
When I returned to  McMurdo I took a tour through the Pressure Ridges. They are caused by the constantly moving ice that collides with the shore causing ice to shoot upward, creating beautiful structures on the sea ice.


Seals often can be seen in the pressure ridge areas as they come up to the surface through the cracks.  We ran across a baby seal squacking for it's mother while we were on the walk.

 

December 15 - 19 Endurance Camp Take-Out
I had the chance to lead the take out of the Endurance camp on Lake Bonney. I helped set this camp up in October, it was great to be a part of both set up and take down. There were over 15 helocopter sling loads on the project so we had the help of a Helo Tec each day. Ryan got to come out on the first day to evaluate the rigging of the loads. When we were done for the day Ry and I took a little walk to the Taylor Glacier and Blood Fall.

 The Rhone Glacier is behind us.

Blood Falls in the background.

Got him to smile ;)

 

The Endurance hard-working Crew!

Once all the sling loads were gone, we had a celebratory dance!
 

That takes me up to December - Soon, I will fill you on with Christmas, MAAG, IceStock and more...
Enjoy start of the new Year!