Day 6 October 16 '11 Part 2

This is one long glacier. I think it's the Beardmore.

The view was stunning.  Soon we were on the ice runway. Soon I was off the plane into the bright, white, pure world of Antarctica. It was cold, crisp and smelled of nothing. Nothing smelled wonderful-pure, fresh, clean. The sun was so bright and there was so much to take in. The multiple splotches of red parkas against the stark white canvas was even beautiful. I was so enamored with my surroundings, I failed to self portait myself off the plane or by Ivan, nor did I remember to ask anyone to take any of me. I can try and re-enact later.




Ivan the Terra Bus in the background. I'll post a better pic later.




The pointed mountain is Observation Hill (Ob Hill for short) the mountain behind it is Mt Erebus, the most southerly active volcano.

   

 We were shepherded to our transport, IVAN the Terra Bus. All crammed in, we were taken to our welcoming orientation at the Chalet a short 15 minute trip into town, given room assignments and keys and sent off walking to our prospective dorms. The roads were "sanded" with chunks of volcanic rock and stones. Easy to twist an ankle if you aren't careful.

Our baggage would be available for pickup in a few hours, so in the meantime I found my room, picked a bed (choice of 6), and went and got my bedding. I was too tired to make my bed. I just curled up on my bed with my Big Red parka and took a nap.

My bed for the next 4 months



My room has that homey 'orphanage' feel.



A few hours later, I heard someone come in. It was little mousy Chelsea. She and Rosemary from Cordova AK were my roommates to start. They told me our bags were in from the C17 up at building 140 which was also my work office building coincidentally. It was a harsh walk up the hill. The altitude was making me shorter breathed than usual. I’m out of shape but the huffing and puffing that I was experiencing was beyond normal. I thought I was gonna die. Thankfully, there was a shuttle taxi service back to the dorm with all my bags. Unfortunately there were no luggage carts here, so I was schlepping them all by myself 1 or 2 at a time. I was exhausted all over again.

Chelsea was encouraging me to get something to eat before I passed out again. I barely had the energy to make my bed or take care of my stuff. Not that there was anywhere to put them, but that’s a story for another post.

Work starts tomorrow 730am.  I’m already exhausted.

Day 5- October 15 '11

Day 5- Oct 15’11

iron cutout on boulder outside CDC

845a shuttle ride to CDC (Christchurch Distribution Center) where the first half of the group would be receiving our issued cold weather gear. ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) sizing forms were filled out during recruitment. 2 orange bags with our names were waiting for us to dive in and start trying stuff on and exchanging what didn’t fit. I was allowed to bring some of my own, but kept some of theirs just in case.

The whole process was so hot and uncomfortable. Trying on layers and layers of extra warm clothes in a large open room with 20 other girls was so far the least fun thing.  Along with deciding what to keep and turn back in, was also the decisions of what to check, what to carryon and how to stay within the weight limit of 150#.  I was worried most of the day that what I was carrying on was not enough to keep my checked stuff under the 150#. It ended up working out fine and I worried needlessly.

Being part of the first group early in the day definitely had the advantage of time to explore Christchurch a little.  Our core group was making plans for lunch and a walk to the botanical gardens.  Knowing that I would probably want to take my time and take lots of pictures, I told the group I  would meet up with them there. They also wanted to do lunch at a Japanese joint and that didn’t appeal to me, so I headed out on my own in search of palatable food for lunch and a leisurely walk to the gardens.

Firefighter Jake from Hawaii

I spotted a pizza/Italian place called Spagos and as I was about to cross the street, I heard someone shout my name. It was fireman Jake from Hawaii. I enjoyed a nice lunch of chicken/bacon carbonera while he ate venison pizza and he introduced me to Isaac’s Cider- a delicious carbonated beverage.

Jake had bought a new Canon T3 camera and had a few lenses but not the knowledge to use them. I was happy to help him with some pointers as we walked along to the botanical gardens. He seemed content to go my pace of slow and quickly picked up photo composition.  He had some jokes about the size of the lens I was carrying ( my new 28mm-300mm hefty) asking it if it was a telescope or if I could see the Hubbell Telescope itself.

Springtime in New Zealand is gorgeous. It was a 70 degree day. A little too hot for me but a little too cold for Jake. We moseyed along. He didn’t seem to mind the frequent stops to take pix of ducks and flowers. Our group eventually met up with us but was walking at a faster pace than I cared to walk and still take my time to take pix. So they went on ahead. Jake and I came upon Mikey K reading on a bench. We sat and relaxed a bit with him and watched the male ducks mercilessly chase and harass the female ducks.

On our way back, we went past the barricades blocking off downtown Christchurch. Downtown Christchurch was the epicenter of a horrendous earthquake in February of this year. From what we could see, it looked like a warzone, shell-shocked and crumbling. Surreally, it could have been a movie set for a post apocalyptic drama. February was the time when the Antarctica summer contractors are coming off the Ice back into Christchurch. Many Raytheon and NANA employees were affected. Both the girls I work with in Air Services were in Christchurch when the earthquake hit. Christen and her boyfriend Kevin had just left the hotel to go exploring. They had on them their cameras, passports, wallets and other essentials.  Moments later, their hotel sank into the ground along with the rest of their belongings and clothes. New Zealand has recently emailed some people letting them know that officials are slowly opening certain sites, allowing recovery of personal effects of  guests and that they hoped to have their belongings by the end of November.

Broken windows, cracked and crumbling walls, split foundations…. The devastation is still quite evident.

 

Things That Impress Me Here

Things that impress me:

The fact that most of the “kids” (loosely meaning anyone between the ages of 19 and 30) are all well traveled and independent.  Almost every youngster here has stories of their amazing globe bouncing trips. Their passports are almost full of stamps from mostly little known or exotic locales.

What impresses me is that they will just up and go. They somehow earn the funds to their next adventure and find odd jobs there to pay for the next leg. They are mostly hipsters, who thrive on minimalism and pride themselves on being low maintenance. Hostels are their castles to lay their heads and any body of water their bath.  I admire them in a way. Not in an ‘I don’t mind not bathing for a week’ or ‘I think this hostel has bedbugs and may or may not have washed the sheets from the last guests.’ I admire that they take a leap of faith that they will have whatever they will need, when they need it. I admire them going out and seizing the world, seeing what they want to see, working for what they want and/or need and just LIVING.

I was surprised that many do so alone. There are many couples, but there are men and women alike that do it solo- and bravely.  Wary of the possible dangers, but not paralyzed with fear of the worst that could happen, they boldly go forward and make experiences for themselves.

On the other end of the spectrum are the 55+ aged veterans. Returners year after year after year, they are tough, rough, weathered and somewhat grizzled. A majority of them winter over, staying all year round, going off continent for brief R&Rs, but returning for more of the harshness and beauty this land offers.

These veterans are the ones that are honored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) by having a geographical site or marker named after them. Much deserved in my opinion. They give so much to this project, so they will live on forever remembered by future researchers, scientists, and wanderlusts alike.

It’s not just the continent that will awe you- it’s the people too. Amazing.

Day 4- October 14'11

Day 4

Finally boarding for New Zealand.

Qantas is officially the best airline ever in my book. In your seat there was a care package with a bottle of water, toothbrush, toothpaste, headphones, pillow and blanket. There were movie screens on the backs of all the headrests and the seat’s armrest had a removable remote for ease switching channels. They offered several recent theater run movies, TV shows, games and a flight status screen showing your location and informed you how many hours and miles since the flight departed, how long and how far until destination, the plane’s speed and altitude and where it was daylight or nighttime in conjunction to your location. It was very handy. Probably became a necessity after too many passengers over the years asking the age old travel question “Are we there yet?”

The Qantas Airbus 330 has a seat configuration of 2-4-2.  I was on the aisle end of a 4 row. In my row were Mike and Chris from the program and a random girl who was not. As the 4 of us were getting settled in, she excused herself to go to the bathroom. Why would you wait to get on the plane and then go to the bathroom? There was a restroom close to the boarding gate. Anyway- the jet is winding up, the safety schpeel has ended and we are taxiing, but this girl has not come back. A stewardess comes by and tells Mike he can move over a seat (the missing girl’s) to put a little space between him and I. That girl’s bag and stuff is still under the seat, so we tell the stewardess about this missing girl who left her stuff. She gets a concerned look on her face and leaves for what I assume is a search and rescue in the bathroom. Meanwhile, the pilot tells the staff to buckle in, that we are cleared for takeoff.

After takeoff and the seatbelt light is off, the missing girl comes beebopping to her old seat to retrieve her bag. Apparently she found a nicer seat towards the back of the plane and claimed it her own. So that left the 3 of us able to kind of spread out.

Dinner and drinks are served. Qantas does not treat any seat as 3^rd class. Everyone receives a delicious hot meal and everything, including beer and wine and other liquor, on the beverage cart is no extra charge. Splendid! The dinner tray included a roll of breathmints- how considerate. The dessert was unbelievably yummy. It was a Caramel Custard Cake. So smooth and creamy!

After dinner and people were starting to settle down to start sleeping, the stewardesses all came around and had everyone close their shades, so that when the sun came up, it did not disturb or wake anybody sleeping.  Wow! Way to think ahead. I cannot say enough how kind, considerate and friendly Qantas stewardesses are.

I managed to get a good 6 or 7 hours of sleeping. I also watched ‘Midnight in Paris’ and ‘Arthur’. Yes 2 full length feature films and slept 7 hours. It was a 14 hour flight after all.

It was for the most part an uneventful flight. The only issue I had was the lady across the aisle. I probably would have slept better if not for her. Every time she got up to go potty or let her husband out, she managed to knock her butt into me-without apology. She also hit me with her book and dropped something on my foot. Never a ‘Pardon me’, ‘Excuse me’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘My apologies’. Nothing. Evidently manners weren’t her thing.

So we landed in Auckland, New Zealand (the north island) and the airport is crazy busy. Apparently, New Zealand’s Rugby team the ‘All Blacks’, were in the Rugby World Cup semi finals and New Zealand happened to be hosting the Rugby World Cup this year in Auckland. Despite my best efforts of inquiring of locals what mascot or what was an ‘All Black’ even was, no one could tell me. I did learn that the symbol associated with ‘All Black’ was a common fern that was bright green on the top side and silver on the bottom side. I was unfortunately not able to locate such a fern to examine its coloring.

Walking from the international terminal to the domestic terminal (with yet another luggage cart loaded with my bags), I noticed that Auckland looked and smelled a lot like Hawaii- clean air and flowers.

In the air leaving Auckland, I saw the north islands coastline of gorgeous turquoise water and cliffs and hills along it that looked a little like Kauai’s Na Pali Coast.  Flying over the south island, it was luscious, vibrant green in patchwork fields dotted with hundreds of sheep. It was springtime in New Zealand and it was beautiful.

Airport shuttle vans all come equipped with mini clamshell trailers on the back for all the baggage. The vans were all assigned to take people to the different hotels. The van assigned to The Pavilions, was looking full in the back, so the driver opened the left side front door and motioned for me to get in. I was at first worried and nervous. I told him, ‘I can’t drive; I don’t know where we’re going.’ He again told me to get in the left side door. I was still confused and then realized- the steering wheel is on the right side. He had opened the passenger side door- not what would be the driver’s door in the USA.  Duh. They drive on the left side of the road and sit on the right.

After we checked in, a group of us wanted to go to dinner. So we walked down the street to a small Thai place. Pam(took the pic),Mike, Trudy, Tricia M, Jeff, CJ, Craig, Caitlin, Joey, Chris, Jason, Randy, Jake. It was my first Thai food and it was pretty good. I also tried New Zealand’s beer Speight’s (spayts) and it was really good.

The group wanted to go out for drinks and explore. Tricia M and I were too tired and chose to go back to the hotel for sleep…….

Day 3- October 13 '11

Day 3

Everyone’s tons of bags got loaded on the hotel shuttles and we were headed back to Raytheon for a half day of classes. We would be leaving at noon to go to Denver airport for our flight to LAX. Fortunately for us and other airport personnel, Raytheon has a dedicated counter at American Airlines for Antarctica deployments. It went very smoothly and I did not get charged for my 3^rd bag. BONUS! And thank goodness for luggage carts. I would have been lost and continuously and tremendously  struggling.

Everything went smoothly to LAX. We had about 5 or 6 hours of downtime until our flight, but most used this time to call and talk to family, get acquainted with more people or nap. I did the first 2. I still am struggling with overwhelming sadness and homesickness that is very uncharacteristic of me. Jerry does his best to help shake me out of it, but it still lingers.

I met an IT tech headed to the Ice named Dennis. This was his 12^th season. He was very helpful in explaining the next stages and what to expect. Like most veterans to the Ice, he was looking out for us newbies and making sure we all got to where we were going. I felt fortunate to have his guidance.

While waiting for our flight, a group of us were all congregating in a group and Newt Gingrich came up to us to ask what organization (we obviously looked like we were in one) we were with. When we told him we were going to Antarctica, he thanked us for our support of the scientists here and to have a safe and fun trip and wished us good luck. Newt Gingrich? Really? I sat in LAX for 5 hours and the only recognizable personality I saw was Newt Gingrich? No actors, no musicians, just Newt Gingrich. Thanks so much LA.

Another awesome girl I met was Tricia M. We were known shortly after as Tricia 1 and Tricia 2. We spell our names the same and neither are PAtricia.  We and Dennis decided to grab a bite at the Chili’s down the hall. A little mousy girl who looked to be 13 asked to tag along. I asked Tricia M what the girl’s name was and she told me ‘Charlotte’. Henceforth, I called this girl Charlotte. Later, sitting in a group, I was trying to get her attention. I kept calling her Charlotte and she either was ignoring me or didn’t hear me. She finally turned around and asked if I was talking to her. It was hours later that she finally told me her name was Chelsea- not Charlotte. I felt stupid but she was a nice kid and said it was no problem.

Day 2 October 12th,11

Day 2

Still thoroughly exhausted, our shuttle from the hotel to Raytheon Headquarters was at 730a, but class was fortunately over a 230p. The weather in Denver is perfect.  Sunny  and 70’s. Even with the sunshine, Denver traffic and my absolute need for a sleep convinced me not to wander and stay in and take a nap. 

Meeting more and more people and the majority many have lived or worked in Alaska. I still seem to be the only actual resident. I like everybody except 3 people who have shown themselves to be less than helpful, entirely conceited and completely judgmental. They are definitely NOT the norm for the rest of the group.

I tried to get ahold of Penny without success. This was unfortunate. I was looking forward to catching up with her after 28 years.

Day 1 October 11th, 2011

Day 1

The first day of this amazing adventure started with a very early morning trek to Anchorage at 3am. My flight to Denver was at 730am. Thankfully I was an Alaska Airlines MVP, so I was able to upgrade cheaply to first class all the way.

Sadness has been plaguing me for a week. My friend Brittney pointed out that the deep sadness of missing my husband was proof of how much I loved him and that he was still my best friend that I couldn’t live without. Point well made.

 Deep, deep sadness of missing my wonderful husband and my whole family in general. Are we a normal family? A family so close, that a few months apart is gut wrenching? Yet it was the same wonderfully awesome husband who insisted that I could not pass up this adventure. Who was supportive and trusting enough to let me have this experience, to take this journey and not have regrets for not seizing this opportunity. Still- I was sad and homesickness was already setting in.

I took my seat in first class and was pleasantly surprised to be seated next to a Point Thomson friend, Dave the geologist. We made pleasant conversation for a bit before I was sound asleep for the entire flight.

I met the first person I would become friends with in the shuttle van from the airport. When the van pulled up to the curb, a rather ungentlemanly fellow Raytheon, butted in front of me at the stop, loaded his bags and took the front seat of an almost full van. The last seat left was in the 3^rd row. There was no way I was going to get back there with my backpack with no other door to get back there. I took one look at the situation and uttered my usual “Really? This isn’t going to work.” A gal quickly and correctly assessed the situation and promptly offered her door seat to me as she crawled back there. Super cool move. When we got to the hotel, I once again sincerely thanked her and we introduced ourselves. Cassa from Montana was my first Antarctica friend. She is a wanderlust, who loves working jobs that typically women don’t work. She loves to raise eyebrows. I liked her immediately.

The Red Lion hotel in Denver was very nice. Having so many heavy bags, I grabbed a luggage cart from bellhop, loaded it up and took it to my room. I didn’t have the energy or want to take the time to unload it, take it back downstairs, just to reverse the whole process in 2 days. So I left my bags on it and left it to sit in my room. Hey- there were still 3 others I saw in the lobby. I wasn’t feeling guilty.

Room service for dinner was excellent, after which I slept hard. Orientation shuttle was starting early the next morning.