For more Antarctica info, see my Antarctica links page.
Also check out some Antarctica photos taken by me and by friends.
1/11/01
I will be leaving shortly for the South Pole. I'm scheduled to leave Thursday January 18, 2001 for New Zealand. I'll fly from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ (arriving January 20 because we lose a day crossing the date line) to Christchurch, NZ. In Christchurch I'll gear up with extreme weather clothing and fly to McMurdo, on the coast of Antarctica. From there I'll fly to the Pole!
At the Pole, I will be working on the ACBAR experiment. See my research page for more information about the science I do.
ACBAR is one of the experiments operated through the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (CARA). Check out their web page for cold facts, a vitual tour, and fun science projects.
1/21/01 1:55pm Sun
Hi all-- I'm in Christchurch, NZ! Got in yesterday. Was completely beat. Relaxed then went downtown for dinner, then had a long night's sleep. We're about to gear up with the extreme weather clothes, so I gotta run. In case you're wondering, it's 1:55pm
1/21/01 NZ time (=4:55pm 1/20/01 Pacific Standard Time). I haven't been able to update my website yet but I should be able to do that from the Pole.
1/23/01 12:39am
i'm in mcmurdo! just got in and we leave for pole in 6 hours. i am so beat. got to see a big fat seal here. no penguins (yet). i'll write from the pole!! ps.it is warm (+22F) and sunny here. beautiful day. (even at midnight :)
1/23/01 1:59pm
well, after 4 hours sleep i got on the plane for the south pole. the view of the mtns was great but about 30 min into the flight one of our engines had trouble so we had to turn back to mcmurdo. by then fog had rolled in however so we had to circle for 3.5 hours. it's now about 2pm. started off at 7am. we're supposed to report back at 4pm for a 5:30 flight. ugh.for the pole we're supposed to drink 5 quarts of water per day to prevent altitude sickness. there's also a drug that you can take to prevent altitude sickness, but of course i'm allergic to it. so, more water.
i'm super tired and really out of it. and kinda testy.
summary of previous days, since i have some time:
In Christchuch i sent a message that i was about to head off to get geared up with the extreme cold weather (ECW) clothes. we got 2 orange duffel bags full of warm clothes and try them all on. the fleece pants and jacket are sooo nice. the expedition underwear are pretty great too. i had to exchange just about everything i tried on, but now i'm set. the final bit was what to do about the parka because standard issue is a down parka with wolverine fur trim! (at leat it wasn't cat fur trim.) anyway, they finally gave me the special south pole parka i think only winter-overs are supposed to get. fake down. fake fur. it weighs about as much as i do. oh, clothing dist was on a sunday and they were totally rushing us, which was a pain, since i was slow and confused.
later that day i went downtown for some indian food and a walkaround the botanical gardens. very nice. had thai food the day before. met some super nice women who are wintering over at mcmurdo so have been hanging out with them.
our flight yesterday from christchuch to mcmurdo was better than the flight to auckland. it took a little over 8 hours and we had a few hours delay (some on the plane some off but all on the ground). there weren't that many of us, so we could stretch out a little.
we took a hike (15 min one way?) out to scott's "hut." more like a building. that's where we saw the big fat seal. and also a mummified seal outside the hut. (which i think has been there since scott since it looked like it was stacked up.)
ok, i'm running out of steam. time for some more water. i think those are the highlights so far. i've been taking lots of pictures.
1/24/01 6:23pm
Our flight was cancelled again today. We were on indefinite weather delay all morning and had to keep checking the flight info monitor every half hour. Luckily Ruth had some cards, which made it go a little faster. Around noon we were told to report at 4:30pm (later moved to 3:45 pm) for transport. I took a nap. We got on the transport (a bus takes you several miles down to the airstrip on the ice). Saw a zillion seals on the way down again. Had a close encounter with a skua (sort of a beefed up seagull) on the ice. Sat in the transport and took my bunny boots off to rub my foot and you could see steam coming off my foot. Got notice that the flight was cancelled, so went back up to the station (again), got my room key back, and had dinner.BTW, the rooms are dorms, much like unrenovated college dorms. Bathroom and laundry down the hall. You don't have to pay for laundry, which is exciting. I think I'll do some tonight, since I've been wearing the same long underwear for 3 days now. I'm much more rested now and in a better mood. I want to get to the Pole!
1/27/01
Hi everyone! I'm at the Pole!! This is my 3rd day here. My email is still a bit screwy. Haven't been able to write as much as I'd like. Too much to tell.Have altitude sickness. Last night I had to go suck on some oxygen for an hour because of a killer headache. Today I'm wiped out. Took me 7 hours to work up the energy to come eat (10 min walk from my jamesway to the Dome). Hopefully I'll be feeling better in a few days and will write more.
That said, it is beautiful here. When we got in it was -22 (yes, minus) and sunny. Felt warm since no wind. Warmer than many Chicago days. There were some ice crystals sparkling in the air. The sky is blue and the snow is crunchy. There was a halo (rainbow circle) around the Sun.
Took it easy the 1st day. Felt out of it with slight headache. 2nd day felt better (still headache) so went in to work for 5 hours. Was trying to calculate telescope offsets when the altitude hit. I couldn't subtract 2 numbers!! It took me 20 minutes. I finally went to the doc. Today I did my one load of laundry for the week, relaxed, ate, sat here like a zombie. Drank lots of water. So far I've been waking up at 9am of my own free will. Freaky.
Have been hanging out with Erik (friend from Chicago)-- eating meals, showing me around, etc. Have met alot of cool people down here-- everyone is super friendly and will introduce themselves, etc.
I'll write more when I regain my senses! I've been writing in my paper journal, so I'll copy that to the web when I can.
I wish all of you could be here to see this amazing place!
1/30/01
It's my 6th day here and I'm feeling much better. Yesterday I went in to work. The telescope was up and working when I got here so there is plenty of data for me to analyze. ACBAR was designed and built by our group and they have been working hard all season to install it. I'm helping to refine our pointing (where the telescope looks), calibration (knowing how bright the things are that we look at), etc. by analyzing the preliminary data as it comes in. ACBAR is a special instrument on the Viper telescope.Over the past week or so I've noticed how serious they are about conservation in Antarctica. They recycle about 70% of their trash-- twice as much as the best cities in the US. There are 14 different types of trash bins: food waste, "burnables" (paper towels, napkins, etc.), aluminum, plastic, paper, cardboard and biohazard, to name just a few. The trash has to be sent back to the US (very costly).
They also have to bring in all food, fuel and supplies by plane. Since fuel is so costly to bring in (and they need to burn fuel to heat water) you are only allowed two 2-minute showers and 1 load of laundry per week. The shower situation is not as bad as it might seem though-- because it's so dry here, you don't feel like taking a shower every day. The 2 minutes of running water for rinsing can be spread between intervals of soaping up with the water off. It is amazing how wasteful we are back in the States.
Today the weather is -24 F (-53F with windchill) and cloudy. For South Pole weather and other info, check out the South Pole Website. I've shifted around to a more night owl schedule again. The communications satellites are up then.
1/31/01
Check out these digital pictures.
2/6/01
I added some digital pictures from my friend Christine. They are of the ECW clothes distribution and the flight to McMurdo.There is a t-shirt here you can buy that says "Ski South Pole-- 2 inches of powder, 2 miles of base." Yesterday I cross-country skiied out to the telescope and back. What a mistake. X-c skiing is super fun, but my ski boots are not warm enough. My toes have never been in such pain as when they were warming up. I don't know how some of my colleagues walk out here in sneakers. Bunny boots for me. The snow here is a weird consistency for skiing-- you don't get much glide because it is so dry. It's almost chalky.
Today it snowed. A light dry snow, and not very much. I think it was falling snow (usually it's just blowing snow, SP hardly ever gets precip) because it wasn't very windy and it was cloudy.
Right now I have a cold and this code keeps giving me segmentation faults. Ugh.
2/8/01
I still have a nasty cold. Ugh.It is getting colder. Ambient temperature these days is at least -30 F and windchill has gotten down to -80 F. Last night when I walked out to the telescope it was cloudy and windy. I could see wind snaking light snow across the landscape. Now I feel like I'm at the South Pole. I have to bundle up more-- I wear a fleece balaclava and ski goggles over my face, in addition to the hat and neck gaiter. The station population has dropped from over 200 down to about 150 this week.
One of you asked about the bathroom situation. At "summer camp" where I sleep, there is a bath house, with real toliets, sinks and a shower. The bath house is sunny, warm and nice. Most people use a coffee can at night though, because you have to bundle up to go out to the bath house and that's a pain. There are real bathrooms in the Dome too.
The telescope building (which is about 2/3 mile away from the Dome), is another matter, however. There is a 3 ft barrel with a funnel. This is not a problem for the guys and most of the scientists out here are guys (not that I'm bitter or anything). The other option is a seat with a bag underneath. It is a bag your own system. I have to empty the bag into the funnel. The bad part is the liquid displaces the "air" in the barrel. It is really foul. Other women have tried other clever and/or acrobatic methods. There are no sinks at which to wash your hands.
2/13/01
Well, this will probably be my last entry before I leave the Pole. It's Mon night (actually early Tues morning but I'm on a night schedule) and we leave Wed morning. We're scheduled to just switch planes in McMurdo, not to stay there, but you never know. It's now down in the -40's F ambient, -80's F with windchill.Every time I walk betwen the Dome and the telescope the snow crunches underfoot. On parts that have not been beaten down by people, the sound is like a 10000 year old lochness monster stirring underneath. I only sink in about 2 inches. The snow in the dome, which has been tramped to no end, has the consistency of sand/gravel/chalk and is a little gray. There is no dirt or mud or soot or slush here.
I feel like I should say something conclusion-like, but I'm not sure what to say. I'll be busy finishing up tasks, transferring computer files and packing until I leave. We've got some really beautiful observations. I'm recovering from my cold and from the altitude just in time to leave. Still, I feel like I accomplished a fair amount at work here. I have definitely not been bored and I've met some really great people. Most of all I'm glad I got the opportuinty to be here. I'll write again from NZ!
2/19/01
i'm writing from one of these internet places in dunedin, nz. after a rocky start to my vacation (bad motels, bad rental car), i found a nice place to stay here. dunedin is about 5 hours south of christchurch-- i was in christchurch for about 3 days after the pole. yesterday i went out on to the otago peninsula and saw yellow eyed penguins, albatross, fur seals, sea lions and little blue penguins! at night, the sky cleared up for a bit and i could see the milky way. and orion-- upside down. today i'm going to explore the town and then later head off to the mountains south of here (the catlins). nz is almost all countryside. the main highway is a 2-lane country road. there are way more sheep than people. dunedin is the 2nd biggest city on the south island, with a little over 100,000 people. the scenery is very relaxing and the people are really nice.2/28/01
I'm back in Santa Barbara now. The palm trees never looked so good. I got back Sat 2/24. Slept for about 19 hours that night and 13 the next. Guess this will be my big final summary of the Pole and New Zealand entry. As I get my pictures (12 rolls!) back, I'll scan (some of) them in.The flight from the Pole to NZ actually went pretty well. We left the Pole on time (or a little early?) and had an uneventful 3 hour flight. In McMurdo we had a few hours layover. It felt so warm and it was so easy to breathe there! I was walking around like I had just landed in a tropical paradise. From McMurdo to Christchurch we flew on a C-141, which only takes 5.5 hours (woohoo!).
We got to Christchurch about 2am. It felt so hot and HUMID that people were stripping off clothes left and right. It was 120 degrees warmer than where we had come from. In the airport bathroom I was down to my long underwear and sportsbra but decided I better put my shirt back on. We had to turn in our ECW gear that night, so it was a total zoo with 150 people (Pole people plus a bunch of McMurdo people) turning in all their gear. Somewhere between the door of the CDC and the women's changing room I dropped my windpants. Of course there were hundreds of windpants in that short distance, but somebody found mine, so crisis averted.
Took a shuttle to my hotel downtown. At the hotel, took a SHOWER, drank some REAL MILK, and went to sleep. Spent the next day eating good food and hanging out at the botanical gardens. Spent the day after that making travel plans, taking care of loose ends, etc. Called every car rental place in Christchurch (literally) and finally found one old Ford, about as old as I am, for rent. Finally got on the road the next day.
All of the South Island of New Zealand was booked up. Places to stay as well as cars. (It's their tourist season.) I spent as much time calling places to stay as I did getting to Dunedin. I had planned on drving around to places, seeing what I felt like seeing, hiking or just whatever and then finding a place to stay wherever I ended up at the end of the day. More planning than that was apparently required. When I got to one town, I asked around about places to stay and they said "you won't find anything at this late hour." "What time is it?" I asked. "6:30pm!" Good thing I had my tent.
After spending a lovely few days in Dunedin, exploring the city and the Otago Peninsula (descibed in previous entry), I headed down the Southern Scenic Route tot he Catlins. It was great. Lots of dirt roads and sheep hills. The coast is spectacularly beautiful-- green peninsulas (peninsulae?) sticking out into turquoise water, with rugged rocks, waves, and sandy beaches. Couldn't look at it without the Xena theme song running through my head. :) Also went on sume bush hikes and hiked to 3 waterfalls. Camped near a bush/bird refuge, although I got in after dark, so I didn't realize it until morning. Thought the raptors were coming to get me or something with the variety of bird calls. Saw some tide flats and the spectacular Nugget Point (which is like the rest of the coast only more so). While camping I saw the Milky Way and the Magellenic Clouds (satellite galaxies to the Milky Way).
Made it out to Slope Point, the southernmost point of the South Island, by sunset one night. There's a sign there pointing to the equator one direction and the South Pole on the other, with the distances. It's especially funny since there are similar sign posts all over NZ with the distances to all the towns and attractions down the dirt road etc. Anyway, you could see for miles on the grassy green hills and I was the only one around. I laid out on a hill and watched the sunset and some of the stars some out. The temperature was perfect. It was sublime.
The next day went to Fiordland. It is unbelievable. Gorgeous lakes, woods, and triangular snow-capped mountains sticking up from the water. I want to go back and hike the Milford Track and/or go on a several day kayak trip. I camped in the woods by a lake/fiord with no one else around for miles. Wow. It was a dept. of conservation campground. You put your $5 (=$2 US) in the box and pitch your tent wherever. There is no big campground procedure like in the US.
There's so much I feel like I'm leaving out. I'm in love with New Zealand. Everything's cheap, the food is fantasic, the people are nice, the government is half women, and everyone drives a 4 door hatchback.
The next day I drove 10 hours back to Christchurch, with spectactular scenery all the way-- mostly mountain desert. Then ate dinner, packed, got 3 hours of sleep, ran around like a nut, and got on the plane.
And here I am. Super happy I had this incredible experience!!
4/13/01
I finally scanned in some of my Antarctica photos.
Also check out some Antarctica photos taken by me and by friends.
1/11/01
I will be leaving shortly for the South Pole. I'm scheduled to leave Thursday January 18, 2001 for New Zealand. I'll fly from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ (arriving January 20 because we lose a day crossing the date line) to Christchurch, NZ. In Christchurch I'll gear up with extreme weather clothing and fly to McMurdo, on the coast of Antarctica. From there I'll fly to the Pole!
At the Pole, I will be working on the ACBAR experiment. See my research page for more information about the science I do.
ACBAR is one of the experiments operated through the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (CARA). Check out their web page for cold facts, a vitual tour, and fun science projects.
1/21/01 1:55pm Sun
Hi all-- I'm in Christchurch, NZ! Got in yesterday. Was completely beat. Relaxed then went downtown for dinner, then had a long night's sleep. We're about to gear up with the extreme weather clothes, so I gotta run. In case you're wondering, it's 1:55pm
1/21/01 NZ time (=4:55pm 1/20/01 Pacific Standard Time). I haven't been able to update my website yet but I should be able to do that from the Pole.
1/23/01 12:39am
i'm in mcmurdo! just got in and we leave for pole in 6 hours. i am so beat. got to see a big fat seal here. no penguins (yet). i'll write from the pole!! ps.it is warm (+22F) and sunny here. beautiful day. (even at midnight :)
1/23/01 1:59pm
well, after 4 hours sleep i got on the plane for the south pole. the view of the mtns was great but about 30 min into the flight one of our engines had trouble so we had to turn back to mcmurdo. by then fog had rolled in however so we had to circle for 3.5 hours. it's now about 2pm. started off at 7am. we're supposed to report back at 4pm for a 5:30 flight. ugh.for the pole we're supposed to drink 5 quarts of water per day to prevent altitude sickness. there's also a drug that you can take to prevent altitude sickness, but of course i'm allergic to it. so, more water.
i'm super tired and really out of it. and kinda testy.
summary of previous days, since i have some time:
In Christchuch i sent a message that i was about to head off to get geared up with the extreme cold weather (ECW) clothes. we got 2 orange duffel bags full of warm clothes and try them all on. the fleece pants and jacket are sooo nice. the expedition underwear are pretty great too. i had to exchange just about everything i tried on, but now i'm set. the final bit was what to do about the parka because standard issue is a down parka with wolverine fur trim! (at leat it wasn't cat fur trim.) anyway, they finally gave me the special south pole parka i think only winter-overs are supposed to get. fake down. fake fur. it weighs about as much as i do. oh, clothing dist was on a sunday and they were totally rushing us, which was a pain, since i was slow and confused.
later that day i went downtown for some indian food and a walkaround the botanical gardens. very nice. had thai food the day before. met some super nice women who are wintering over at mcmurdo so have been hanging out with them.
our flight yesterday from christchuch to mcmurdo was better than the flight to auckland. it took a little over 8 hours and we had a few hours delay (some on the plane some off but all on the ground). there weren't that many of us, so we could stretch out a little.
we took a hike (15 min one way?) out to scott's "hut." more like a building. that's where we saw the big fat seal. and also a mummified seal outside the hut. (which i think has been there since scott since it looked like it was stacked up.)
ok, i'm running out of steam. time for some more water. i think those are the highlights so far. i've been taking lots of pictures.
1/24/01 6:23pm
Our flight was cancelled again today. We were on indefinite weather delay all morning and had to keep checking the flight info monitor every half hour. Luckily Ruth had some cards, which made it go a little faster. Around noon we were told to report at 4:30pm (later moved to 3:45 pm) for transport. I took a nap. We got on the transport (a bus takes you several miles down to the airstrip on the ice). Saw a zillion seals on the way down again. Had a close encounter with a skua (sort of a beefed up seagull) on the ice. Sat in the transport and took my bunny boots off to rub my foot and you could see steam coming off my foot. Got notice that the flight was cancelled, so went back up to the station (again), got my room key back, and had dinner.BTW, the rooms are dorms, much like unrenovated college dorms. Bathroom and laundry down the hall. You don't have to pay for laundry, which is exciting. I think I'll do some tonight, since I've been wearing the same long underwear for 3 days now. I'm much more rested now and in a better mood. I want to get to the Pole!
1/27/01
Hi everyone! I'm at the Pole!! This is my 3rd day here. My email is still a bit screwy. Haven't been able to write as much as I'd like. Too much to tell.Have altitude sickness. Last night I had to go suck on some oxygen for an hour because of a killer headache. Today I'm wiped out. Took me 7 hours to work up the energy to come eat (10 min walk from my jamesway to the Dome). Hopefully I'll be feeling better in a few days and will write more.
That said, it is beautiful here. When we got in it was -22 (yes, minus) and sunny. Felt warm since no wind. Warmer than many Chicago days. There were some ice crystals sparkling in the air. The sky is blue and the snow is crunchy. There was a halo (rainbow circle) around the Sun.
Took it easy the 1st day. Felt out of it with slight headache. 2nd day felt better (still headache) so went in to work for 5 hours. Was trying to calculate telescope offsets when the altitude hit. I couldn't subtract 2 numbers!! It took me 20 minutes. I finally went to the doc. Today I did my one load of laundry for the week, relaxed, ate, sat here like a zombie. Drank lots of water. So far I've been waking up at 9am of my own free will. Freaky.
Have been hanging out with Erik (friend from Chicago)-- eating meals, showing me around, etc. Have met alot of cool people down here-- everyone is super friendly and will introduce themselves, etc.
I'll write more when I regain my senses! I've been writing in my paper journal, so I'll copy that to the web when I can.
I wish all of you could be here to see this amazing place!
1/30/01
It's my 6th day here and I'm feeling much better. Yesterday I went in to work. The telescope was up and working when I got here so there is plenty of data for me to analyze. ACBAR was designed and built by our group and they have been working hard all season to install it. I'm helping to refine our pointing (where the telescope looks), calibration (knowing how bright the things are that we look at), etc. by analyzing the preliminary data as it comes in. ACBAR is a special instrument on the Viper telescope.Over the past week or so I've noticed how serious they are about conservation in Antarctica. They recycle about 70% of their trash-- twice as much as the best cities in the US. There are 14 different types of trash bins: food waste, "burnables" (paper towels, napkins, etc.), aluminum, plastic, paper, cardboard and biohazard, to name just a few. The trash has to be sent back to the US (very costly).
They also have to bring in all food, fuel and supplies by plane. Since fuel is so costly to bring in (and they need to burn fuel to heat water) you are only allowed two 2-minute showers and 1 load of laundry per week. The shower situation is not as bad as it might seem though-- because it's so dry here, you don't feel like taking a shower every day. The 2 minutes of running water for rinsing can be spread between intervals of soaping up with the water off. It is amazing how wasteful we are back in the States.
Today the weather is -24 F (-53F with windchill) and cloudy. For South Pole weather and other info, check out the South Pole Website. I've shifted around to a more night owl schedule again. The communications satellites are up then.
1/31/01
Check out these digital pictures.
2/6/01
I added some digital pictures from my friend Christine. They are of the ECW clothes distribution and the flight to McMurdo.There is a t-shirt here you can buy that says "Ski South Pole-- 2 inches of powder, 2 miles of base." Yesterday I cross-country skiied out to the telescope and back. What a mistake. X-c skiing is super fun, but my ski boots are not warm enough. My toes have never been in such pain as when they were warming up. I don't know how some of my colleagues walk out here in sneakers. Bunny boots for me. The snow here is a weird consistency for skiing-- you don't get much glide because it is so dry. It's almost chalky.
Today it snowed. A light dry snow, and not very much. I think it was falling snow (usually it's just blowing snow, SP hardly ever gets precip) because it wasn't very windy and it was cloudy.
Right now I have a cold and this code keeps giving me segmentation faults. Ugh.
2/8/01
I still have a nasty cold. Ugh.It is getting colder. Ambient temperature these days is at least -30 F and windchill has gotten down to -80 F. Last night when I walked out to the telescope it was cloudy and windy. I could see wind snaking light snow across the landscape. Now I feel like I'm at the South Pole. I have to bundle up more-- I wear a fleece balaclava and ski goggles over my face, in addition to the hat and neck gaiter. The station population has dropped from over 200 down to about 150 this week.
One of you asked about the bathroom situation. At "summer camp" where I sleep, there is a bath house, with real toliets, sinks and a shower. The bath house is sunny, warm and nice. Most people use a coffee can at night though, because you have to bundle up to go out to the bath house and that's a pain. There are real bathrooms in the Dome too.
The telescope building (which is about 2/3 mile away from the Dome), is another matter, however. There is a 3 ft barrel with a funnel. This is not a problem for the guys and most of the scientists out here are guys (not that I'm bitter or anything). The other option is a seat with a bag underneath. It is a bag your own system. I have to empty the bag into the funnel. The bad part is the liquid displaces the "air" in the barrel. It is really foul. Other women have tried other clever and/or acrobatic methods. There are no sinks at which to wash your hands.
2/13/01
Well, this will probably be my last entry before I leave the Pole. It's Mon night (actually early Tues morning but I'm on a night schedule) and we leave Wed morning. We're scheduled to just switch planes in McMurdo, not to stay there, but you never know. It's now down in the -40's F ambient, -80's F with windchill.Every time I walk betwen the Dome and the telescope the snow crunches underfoot. On parts that have not been beaten down by people, the sound is like a 10000 year old lochness monster stirring underneath. I only sink in about 2 inches. The snow in the dome, which has been tramped to no end, has the consistency of sand/gravel/chalk and is a little gray. There is no dirt or mud or soot or slush here.
I feel like I should say something conclusion-like, but I'm not sure what to say. I'll be busy finishing up tasks, transferring computer files and packing until I leave. We've got some really beautiful observations. I'm recovering from my cold and from the altitude just in time to leave. Still, I feel like I accomplished a fair amount at work here. I have definitely not been bored and I've met some really great people. Most of all I'm glad I got the opportuinty to be here. I'll write again from NZ!
2/19/01
i'm writing from one of these internet places in dunedin, nz. after a rocky start to my vacation (bad motels, bad rental car), i found a nice place to stay here. dunedin is about 5 hours south of christchurch-- i was in christchurch for about 3 days after the pole. yesterday i went out on to the otago peninsula and saw yellow eyed penguins, albatross, fur seals, sea lions and little blue penguins! at night, the sky cleared up for a bit and i could see the milky way. and orion-- upside down. today i'm going to explore the town and then later head off to the mountains south of here (the catlins). nz is almost all countryside. the main highway is a 2-lane country road. there are way more sheep than people. dunedin is the 2nd biggest city on the south island, with a little over 100,000 people. the scenery is very relaxing and the people are really nice.2/28/01
I'm back in Santa Barbara now. The palm trees never looked so good. I got back Sat 2/24. Slept for about 19 hours that night and 13 the next. Guess this will be my big final summary of the Pole and New Zealand entry. As I get my pictures (12 rolls!) back, I'll scan (some of) them in.The flight from the Pole to NZ actually went pretty well. We left the Pole on time (or a little early?) and had an uneventful 3 hour flight. In McMurdo we had a few hours layover. It felt so warm and it was so easy to breathe there! I was walking around like I had just landed in a tropical paradise. From McMurdo to Christchurch we flew on a C-141, which only takes 5.5 hours (woohoo!).
We got to Christchurch about 2am. It felt so hot and HUMID that people were stripping off clothes left and right. It was 120 degrees warmer than where we had come from. In the airport bathroom I was down to my long underwear and sportsbra but decided I better put my shirt back on. We had to turn in our ECW gear that night, so it was a total zoo with 150 people (Pole people plus a bunch of McMurdo people) turning in all their gear. Somewhere between the door of the CDC and the women's changing room I dropped my windpants. Of course there were hundreds of windpants in that short distance, but somebody found mine, so crisis averted.
Took a shuttle to my hotel downtown. At the hotel, took a SHOWER, drank some REAL MILK, and went to sleep. Spent the next day eating good food and hanging out at the botanical gardens. Spent the day after that making travel plans, taking care of loose ends, etc. Called every car rental place in Christchurch (literally) and finally found one old Ford, about as old as I am, for rent. Finally got on the road the next day.
All of the South Island of New Zealand was booked up. Places to stay as well as cars. (It's their tourist season.) I spent as much time calling places to stay as I did getting to Dunedin. I had planned on drving around to places, seeing what I felt like seeing, hiking or just whatever and then finding a place to stay wherever I ended up at the end of the day. More planning than that was apparently required. When I got to one town, I asked around about places to stay and they said "you won't find anything at this late hour." "What time is it?" I asked. "6:30pm!" Good thing I had my tent.
After spending a lovely few days in Dunedin, exploring the city and the Otago Peninsula (descibed in previous entry), I headed down the Southern Scenic Route tot he Catlins. It was great. Lots of dirt roads and sheep hills. The coast is spectacularly beautiful-- green peninsulas (peninsulae?) sticking out into turquoise water, with rugged rocks, waves, and sandy beaches. Couldn't look at it without the Xena theme song running through my head. :) Also went on sume bush hikes and hiked to 3 waterfalls. Camped near a bush/bird refuge, although I got in after dark, so I didn't realize it until morning. Thought the raptors were coming to get me or something with the variety of bird calls. Saw some tide flats and the spectacular Nugget Point (which is like the rest of the coast only more so). While camping I saw the Milky Way and the Magellenic Clouds (satellite galaxies to the Milky Way).
Made it out to Slope Point, the southernmost point of the South Island, by sunset one night. There's a sign there pointing to the equator one direction and the South Pole on the other, with the distances. It's especially funny since there are similar sign posts all over NZ with the distances to all the towns and attractions down the dirt road etc. Anyway, you could see for miles on the grassy green hills and I was the only one around. I laid out on a hill and watched the sunset and some of the stars some out. The temperature was perfect. It was sublime.
The next day went to Fiordland. It is unbelievable. Gorgeous lakes, woods, and triangular snow-capped mountains sticking up from the water. I want to go back and hike the Milford Track and/or go on a several day kayak trip. I camped in the woods by a lake/fiord with no one else around for miles. Wow. It was a dept. of conservation campground. You put your $5 (=$2 US) in the box and pitch your tent wherever. There is no big campground procedure like in the US.
There's so much I feel like I'm leaving out. I'm in love with New Zealand. Everything's cheap, the food is fantasic, the people are nice, the government is half women, and everyone drives a 4 door hatchback.
The next day I drove 10 hours back to Christchurch, with spectactular scenery all the way-- mostly mountain desert. Then ate dinner, packed, got 3 hours of sleep, ran around like a nut, and got on the plane.
And here I am. Super happy I had this incredible experience!!
4/13/01
I finally scanned in some of my Antarctica photos.