Back to the ice

Ice folks' sign at the airport

C-17 flight from Christchurch
to McMurdo

C-17 from the front

Early October, Jeff headed to Christchurch en route to the ice. Due to consistently terrible weather in Antarctica, he was delayed in Christchurch for a full week!   Not a bad gig considering he got perdiem and a hotel as part of the deal. My migration from the US back through Christchurch was a bit less luxurious but I did get one extra free day to go exploring with a new friend who was also headed to the ice.  Turns out, she was part of the first team of women to ski to the south pole in the early 90s!

C-17 from the outside -
these things are BIG!

On top of Ob Hill, just outside of town.

No longer a FNG (pronounced fin-gee for those of you who care), as they call the newbies here!  This year, my job is with the environmental department.  So far, it's awesome but I do miss the wasties that I worked with last year.

Trash Jelly Fish

VanMatre wanna be...

So far, we've survived the Halloween party, some crazy con 1 weather (when conditions are so bad you aren't allowed to go outside) and all the boring training required at the start of each season.  Jeff's costume can only be appreciated if you know the original James VanMatre but it was pretty spot on.  I was a jelly fish made from trash (there was a fluther of us - that's science guy talk for the group of posers with costumes like mine).

The last sunset was October 23rd and the sun will but up for the rest of the season (it will finally dip below the horizon on February 20th).  The end of sunsets makes for some nice twilight times with beautiful sun on the mountians across the bay.  I took my mountain pictures while at the top of town helping to clean up a glycol spill at 11pm.  Not very fun but the view is hard to beat!

Panoramic from Ob Hill with McMurdo on the right.

A couple of these pictures (C-17 and CHCH sign) are stolen from John Law's Metservice blog.  John was on my flight down to the ice....