NICE ZEALAND
I don't know what Old Zealand was like, but New Zealand seemed very nice.
To fly down to the station at McMurdo in Antarctica you had to be processed
through the USAP office in Christchurch, New Zealand, which was located at the
International Antarctic Centre [sic :]. You got from where ever you lived
to New Zealand (and hopefully back again) on regular commercial airliners.
From Christchurch to Antarctica you had to fly on a military aircraft. Unwinding
for a couple of days, whether you are going to or coming from the ice isn't a bad
idea. In addition, everyone there has such a cute accent.
Below is a picture of Christchurch in the direction of the ocean from the balcony of my 7th floor bed and breakfast apartment. Normally you don't get an apartment at a B&B, especially one on the 7th floor, but Christchurch was full of people trying to get down to Antarctica. Flights had been cancelled for several days because of the weather in McMurdo, so I had to stay in an apartment across the street from the Croydon Bed and Breakfast which is the white building in the lower left hand corner.
The Christchurch Model Yacht Club (est. 1898) met on the weekends in Hagley
Park to race radio controlled sailboats. I didn't see any funny looking
keels on any of these boats when I was there, nor did I see any catamarans. I guess they
don't cheat when they are racing just amongst themselves and not trying to steal
the America's Cup. Them lousy Kiwis.
Christchurch has a huge botanic garden filled with enormous trees -- none of which are in the picture below.
It was early Spring down there in October, so there was a whole lot of bloomin' goin' on.
Below is the Curator's House Restaurant at the botanic garden. The weather was very nice during the couple of days that I was there.
There was a line of trolleys in Christchurch that made a large circle through the city's downtown area. They were for transportation, tours, and in the evening there was even a trolley car that was a moving restaurant.
Armagh Street at night.
The flight from Christchurch down to Antarctica is made on one of two types of military cargo planes. The plane is either a C-130 Hercules, or a C-141 Starlifter (though the C-141's are due to be replaced by much larger C-17's in the near future -- 2004: and have been.). They are usually operated by an Air National Guard (ANG) unit. This time it was the New York Air National Guard. The C-141 is a four engine jet, and the C-130 is a four engine turboprop plane. Our group flew down, with 130 of our physically closest friends, on a C-141. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of pictures of that event, but just imagine a bunch of sardines dressed in red coats, black pants, and stuffed into a can. It was somewhat uncomfortable. It was cramped, and it was either too cold or too hot. Since the weather in McMurdo that was holding all of us up in Christchurch seemed to get worse in the afternoons they wanted to try getting us down to the continent as early in the day as possible. That meant sometime in the morning...it's a five hour flight...you do the math. We had to be at the Antarctic Centre to change into our cold weather clothing (we'd come in the day before to get all of it issued to us and make sure that everything fit), pack away and tag all of the stuff that we were going to be leaving behind in Christchurch, go through a civilian-like airport security check of all the stuff we were taking with us, be 'briefed' with some general information about what was going to be happening, and wait for the plane and us to be loaded. We arrived at the center at 2:00 am. We took off at about 5:30 am.
DIRECT LINKS TO PAGES:
THIS IS SUMMER?
NICE ZEALAND
McMURDO, ANTARCTICA
GETTING AROUND
HAPPY CAMPER SCHOOL
JUST PRACTICING I
JUST PRACTICING II
JUST PRACTICING III
SCOTT
SHACKLETON
BLACK FLAGS I
BLACK FLAGS II
BLACK FLAGS III
THE KIWIS ARE COMING!
THE SUNDAY BOONDOGGLE
WEATHER
AND AWAY WE GO!
THIS IS IT??
AN EXTRAVAGANZA OF SCIENCE
WHERE WERE WE?
LINE SHOOTING 101
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
FOOD
OTHER CAMP STUFF
GPS CONFLUENCE GEOCACHING PHOTOGRAPHY
BYRD SURFACE CAMP
PACKING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!
2006-Jul-30