Coming Soon...

Tomorrow we leave McMurdo Station for 3 months in New Zealand.  We are thru hiking the Te Araroa trail.  Starting in Bluff, the Southern tip of the South Island, to Cape Reinga, the Northern tip of the North Island, we will hike a total of 1,800 miles (3,000 km).  A short jaunt by our standards.  We hope to keep the blog going.  Check it out over the next few months!

Te Araroa Trail website (CLICK ME)

My baby, Cascade.  I'LL BE HOME SOON!!

Antarctica's Most Wanted: BOATS

Breaking ice, breaking laws...these boats have been spotted in McMurdo Sound wreaking havoc on innocent seals trying to sunbath on icebergs with gangs of whales following close behind to cash in on the damage.  If you see any of these boats please write your local congressman immediately.

ICEBREAKER: Breaking ice with hulls of steel, this icebreaker vessel paved the way for his band of cronies to follow close behind.  He may look like a little tug boat but his hulls quickly worked apart the cracks in the sea ice (the same ice that we landed our planes on at the beginning of the season) and sent it out to sea.  Within hours of heavy winds, the entire sea was clear of ice and in came the Minke Whales, the titans of destruction.  Only ice still standing was a 2 mile wide iceberg threatening to block the access to McMurdo.

2 mile wide iceberg

NATHANIAL B. PALMER RESEARCH VESSEL: This undercover ship claims to be here on behalf of science.  Good science or the sort run by the likes of Dr. Evil?  Suspicions were confirmed after this ship was forced to return, after leaving, to drop off one victim claiming "medical evacuation for the good of the person was mandatory".

FUEL TANKER: Pumping liquid gold into the tanks of McMurdo seems like a good cause but this crew has a rough past.  While sailing through the Indian Ocean, they repeatedly met pirates since their load rode so low.  When pirates approached, the crew had a special synchronized gun dance where they flashed their weapons and the pirates quickly left.  (Actual true story). The pirates quickly tucked tail and ran, but how many were taken captive for hidden treasures?  You'll have to ask Captain Black Gold to find out...

CRUISE SHIP: The high times of the rich and famous rolled into the McMurdo Sound.  People actually PAYING (minimum of $25,000) to see McMurdo played paparazzi to the likes of locals.   People departing this boat were seen wearing heavy parkas and claiming it was cold.  Bunch of new jacks.

Some of the high paying customers from the cruises.  Tourists or victims?

Don't let your wheels freeze, old head.

The second cruise ship to show up.  I'm guessing this "economy version" didn't serve pate.

THE VESSEL OF DOOM: Judgement day arrived at McMurdo, the busiest week of the season.  You live by vessel and you die... maybe not die...they just close all the bars for the week.  Upon arrival, the Giant of the Sea crashed into our delicate ice pier shifting it 10 feet causing divers to have to check out the damage at the crash site. The contents of this behemoth were emptied supplying the community with years worth of food, supplies, etc in exchange for all our waste.  A true trash to treasure love story.

Only in Antarctica: Part 3

And for our final installment of "Only in Antarctica", here are some fun, weird, and interesting facts about life in Antarctica:

Sundial: Only in Antarctica can you have a sundial that can tell time all day and night.

Midnight

1 AM

2:45 AM

3:30 AM

The Troll Under the Bridge: 

Cadaver Table: In Antarctica, you need to be ready for any situation, even the grim.  That is why in the kitchen out at the Pegasus Ice Runway they have a Cadaver table for autopsies ...  that is also advertised as an "emergency" shower...hmmm

 Pets:  What happens when the ladies who work in the salad room find a slug on some fresh veggies flown in from Christchurch?  GALLEY PET! After 5 months, it is nice to have something that is living that won't complain about the food!

Freshies:  Last week we received our first shipment of fresh fruit, vegetables, and eggs since before Christmas! You've never seen so many happy faces until you watch a bunch of people biting into a banana after months without.  What also made this so special was that it was the first unexpired food we've had in awhile.  For some reason expiration dates are not recognized on this continent.  Most of our food expired years ago, but I guess since it was buried in some millvan under snow for the past five, it negates all those years in between.  Rip Van Winkle pork chops.  Needless to say, fresh bananas made everyone bonkers!

Typos: Not all passport stamps are created equal.  

The "C" is not as silent as it appears in the first stamp.

Sometimes I get bored:

...and so the sun set...

On February 20th, we had our first sunset in 4 months.  After continuous sunshine for the entire summer it was nice to reach a beautiful dusk around midnight.  

Ladies Weekend at Black Island

Like Chris, I was also fortunate enough to have a boondoggle (morale trip) to Black Island for a weekend. Except, I'd have to say mine was 10 billion times better because it ultimately turned into an all girls weekend! Yay! After spending the past 5 months with mostly middle aged men (there are about 23% women at McMurdo) I had a great time with Morgan, Christine, and Gina at Black Island.  And yes, we did paint our toenails and read Vogue. Chris already told you a bit about Black Island in his post "An Antarctic Retreat" so I'm just going to post some pictures of beautiful Black Island.

View of Pegasus Airfield from the helicopter

Breaking the ice to fetch water

Black Island field camp

Pictures from our hike around

Mummified Seal

Whole mummified seal

Singing the glories of Black Island

Flying shot gun in a helicopter

A Weekend Retreat, Antarctica style

McMurdo Station is built too close to a volcano.  More accurately, McMurdo Station is built too close to a large mountain.  Mt. Erebus is a large and tall volcanic mountain.  McMurdo Station lies to the South of this mountain, however is close enough to it that the mountain blocks all satellite connections.  This is a problem when all communication with the rest of the world is done through satellites.  In order to work around this issue a small communications camp was built just across the sea, called Black Island.  All communications coming to/from McMurdo are sent to Black Island where they are relayed to McMurdo or up to satellites.

Black Island is a small camp.  It consists of one building and a bunkhouse.  Two people run the facility during the Austral summer season and it is operated remotely, from McMurdo, during the winter season.  I was given the incredible chance to spend a weekend at Black Island.

I was scheduled to fly to the island on a Saturday morning.  I was excited and pumped up, until I found out the trip was delayed a week.  A storm had rolled into the area and most of the available helicopters on station were being put on standby to assist in a search and rescue operation taking place on the continent.  A week went by and this time the weather held.  I gathered up a few things to take with me and dressed up in my ECW (extreme cold weather) gear, which is mandatory to wear for almost all air travel.  The helo pad is a short 10 minute walk from my dorm so I carried my things there.  After arriving I checked in with helo operations and when the group was together we went through a short briefing on helo safety.  We then walked out to the helicopter for our ride over to Black Island.  Riding in a helicopter is WAY more fun than flying in a plane!  It was a brief flight, 15 minutes, over the Ross Sea.  We flew over the Pegasus Ice runway and saw the old Pegasus crash site.  In 1970 a plane crashed in bad weather right near the current Pegasus Ice Runway.  No one was hurt in that crash and parts of the plane are still visible, sticking out of the snow.

We approached Black Island and did a quick loop around it before landing at the camp.  After hopping out of the helicopter we met our host for the weekend, Tony.  He began coming down to Antarctica in 1987 and has been the camp manager at Black Island since the 90's.  He was quite a character and had no trouble filling the weekend with stories of his time in Antarctica.  I took a few pictures and videos of the  place....enjoy!!!!

Videos = Click these lines:

Flight of the Navigator (just a short clip during my helo flight)

Black Island Tour: Part 1

Black Island Tour: Part B

Black Island Tour: Part 3

Gary and Amy, in the helicopter

Black Island facility, from the air

Chillaxin'

Alicia, Justin and Gary

After getting back to McMurdo I saw these two skua dive bomb that guy for his food then fight each other for it.....IT. WAS. AWESOME.  But sucks about the food, man.