Sunday, March 09, 2008
Off to Tonga
I have had a great time in New Zealand despite having to spend more time in Christchurch than I would've liked to. After spending two nights in Nelson, New Zealand Erin and I met up with Andrew, Tirzah, and Matt in Takaka (way up on the northern part of the South Island). We bought some groceries and packed ourselves into the little Pulsar to get up to our first rental cottage in Puponga just minutes walk from Farewell Spit. We spent our days exploring Wharariki Beach and the Spit and reading in the cottage during the rain, and we spent our nights cooking fantastic dinners with the wood stove (a marathon pizza night) and getting the car stuck in sand and walking home in the rain. :) On the 4th, we packed up our things and ventured into Collingwood to throw our garbage at the dump. Unfortunately, it was closed so we had to divide up trash and walk around town throwing it in public garbage cans. Then we ventured off for the next house rental we had. It was almost an hour of driving on rough, gravel roads but we glimpsed the ocean as we pulled on to the property and everything was A-OK! We stayed in a little house on the property called the Shearing Shed that used solar power to run the lights at night and a wood stove to heat any of the water used. We had a claw-footed bathtub outside behind the house to bathe under the stars, and the beach was a ten-minute walk down a grassy path. We spent our two full days there exploring the 1000 acre property with seven distinct beaches and lots of rocky pasture land. It was so incredible. A couple nights we walked down to the beach to watch the sunset from there. What a view! We spent two days in the car driving back to Christchurch and camping the one night we were on the road. Once we got to Chch and everyone was situated with a bed, Andrew and I took Matt to his "new" job at a cafe just 10 minutes drive out of the city. He'll work there for a week before he heads up to the North Island. At first, Andrew and I were expecting to have to drive Matt all the way down the Banks Peninsula and since we didn't have to go that far, we decided to explore the coast near Chch. Last night we met up with Tirzah and Erin for dinner and in a few hours I'll head for the airport. On my way to Tonga... stay tuned!!Thursday, February 28, 2008
Nelson, New Zealand
Erin and I were finally able to venture out of Christchurch. I spent my last day there at a beach near the city with Ashley, a friend of mine who's been traveling New Zealand for the past 6 months. Yesterday Erin and I ventured to Nelson on a 7+ hour bus ride. We'll be headed to Takaka tomorrow to meet up with our other beachhouse roomies! You probably won't be hearing much from me until I'm back in Chch on the 8th!Monday, February 25, 2008
Pics From the Last Few Days
Me wearing the play-dough penguin necklace Hudson made for me and sent to Antarctica!
The C-17 that took me out of Antarctica!
Inside the C-17... loading cargo just before take-off
Up in the air... just 45 minutes from McMurdo Station or so
We miss Ralph already... here Tad is hugging him good-bye.
Mmmm... plants... smells... wonderful... except for roses... they smell bad.
Dinner at Brewer's Arms. I had chicken, beef, kangaroo, and ostrich. And I cooked them all on a 400 degree stone. They were delicious!
This is my Dutch friend Tanja. We have been friends since I studied in Leeuwarden 4 years ago. She just happened to be traveling through Christchurch so we hung out for a bit.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Holy Humidity!!
YIKES! My hair is a giant frizz ball. I am finally in Christchurch, New Zealand after two days of delays. I spent my first full day in town yesterday mailing stuff home that I don't want to travel with for the next month, and then I did a little shopping. More to add to the pack.Wednesday, February 20, 2008
**WX CANCEL**
**WX CANCEL** is the notice we've been seeing on our TV scroll in regards to our outgoing flight the past two days. I was supposed to be leaving Antarctica yesterday, and I'm still here more than 24 hours later. We're hoping to be out tomorrow as it looks like the weather has cleared, but it's just like Wisconsin... "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute."I've got a few pictures to post from the past week or so...
This is the view from my office window. Minus the building (that's part of the Crary lab), it's a great view! Mt. Discovery is one of my favorite things to look at.
Me in my office. Jesse, my officemate, is sitting at his desk. You can see my ball chair behind me (I don't use it all the time). And Mrs. Grams' class might notice the big orange sign hanging near my desk!! That sign made lots of people jealous! ;)
On the GA's second to last night in town, we had a little party in our lounge. Andrew suggested putting on the Santa costumes that Matt and I still had from Santarctica. Then we started pulling out other random bits and pieces of costumes. Now Bamma and I have a box full of stuff for next year's "Costume Box"!
This is Andrew the GA. We'll be hanging out in New Zealand at some cool houses on the north part of the South Island with some friends of ours. Then the two of us will be meeting up in South Africa at the very end of March. I'm so excited to see what crazy adventures we find ourselves in!
This is my buddy Ethan in the Galley for dinner. He's a coworker of mine, and we pinset together at the bowling alley when both our schedules work out. I'm a big fan of this guy, and he's more than likely not coming back. But he's moving to Vancouver with his girlfriend (also a friend of mine) so I will have a place to stay when I finally get up to BC.
My friends at Scott Base invited me over for one last dinner with them last week. They told me that next season I have a standing date to come over for dinner once a week. :) I snapped this picture in the bar after dinner. When Shaz and Billee were chatting, Megan started making faces. Love this pic!
Friday, February 08, 2008
More Pics from the Second Season on Ice
You have to be nominated to have a land feature named after you here in Antarctica. Usually it happens to people who have worked here for 10-20 years. This year, a few people on station were rewarded for years of hard work here at McMurdo and in the field camps. One of my coworkers, Mike Ebel, was recognized by having some hills on the continent named after him: the Ebel Hills. Or as Mike likes to call them, the Ebel "Rugged" Hills. We had a surprise ceremony where one of the NSF Representative read the nomination entry that Mike's former coworker Jess wrote about him and presented him with a map showing the Ebel Hills. Mike works as a Utility Technician (UT) and has worked in Crary for the past 6 years (of his 20 years on Ice). So not only is he our coworker here in the lab, but he works with 15-20 other UTs at McMurdo who all came to surprise him. When he first walked into the room, he said "Wow. This is a big safety meeting." He didn't realize until the speakers stood up that we had cancelled the safety meeting to surprise him. When they were reading the nomination entry, he almost started crying. It was great to see such a dedicated, hard-working person be rewarded like this.
A few weeks ago, I was offered a boondoggle to "Room With a View" which is actually just a spot 1400 feet up on Erebus that has a great view, or so I've heard. When we were there Erebus was hidden in clouds but we could see out to the Dellbridge Islands in McMurdo Sound. It was a snowmobile trip and a day off of work which is all that mattered. Before we headed out to RWAV, we drove out to the Pegasus plane crash where I snapped this photo. If you click on the picture to see the bigger version and look closely you can read some of the things people have scratched onto the plane.
This season, my friend Bill wanted to make a movie for the McMurdo Film Festival. We had to shoot "on location" one day away from town. I snapped this pic of Bill and Ralph (in the background) trying to set up a shot. The movie turned out extremely well and was a big hit at the film festival on Monday night. It was titled "In Search for the Southern Yeti".
Ethan, my coworker, and I are camera nerds. All season we talked about the new camera gear we were both getting. I finally bit the bullet and bought two new lenses for my Rebel XTi. One is a super wide angle that Ethan used to take this picture of me at work. This is the computer I use to program key cards (the size of a credit card) for people to get into their offices and labs and to access the building outside of regular work hours.
Longest Chain of Katies in Antarctica Poster
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Getting Dark Already?
