THE KIWIS ARE COMING!

Actually, they are not coming to McMurdo, because they have their own base just over the hill about a 30 minute walk from McMurdo.

In reality you did see a lot of New Zealanders in McMurdo.  They had an office there, used our military transport planes to get back and forth between Antarctica and New Zealand, and kept one of their helicopters in McMurdo which supported both their scientific projects as well as ours.

On Thursday evenings WE invaded Scott Base.  A bus full of McMurdoites would travel over to Scott Base to visit the base store, but mostly to visit the base bar.

As you can see from the sign below they had all of the important tourist facilities.  The population during the summer was about 70 people.  This sign was later taken down because some suit (in extreme cold weather gear) considered it to be too controversial with a group of U.S. senators and congressmen coming to visit Antarctica.  We all thought it was kind of cute.

All of the buildings were painted green -- government green.  The buildings were also all connected by enclosed walkways, so you could walk from one end to the other without having to go outside.  The facilities were pretty modern.  During the winter months the site is monitored, and power generation is monitored and controlled by a satellite link to New Zealand.  The lines and bumps in the sea ice are pressure ridges that pop up when the ice is squeezed together.

There was a pipeline that ran from McMurdo along the side of the road to Scott Base.  It was used to supply fuel to Williams Field airport when operations shifted to there from the ice runway during the summer.

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