We’re still in McMurdo. We were scheduled to leave this morning, but our flights were delayed 24 hours. That’s pretty typical. And given the airfield conditions this year, quite expected. McMurdo operates its flight traffic off of two air strips. One, called Pegasus, can handle large, wheeled aircraft like Airbuses and C-17s. Willy Airfield, however, […]
I have been at McMurdo Station now for 30 hours and it has been a whirlwind. I left my hotel in Christchurch lugging my bags, which then weighed closer to 100 pounds thanks to my Extreme Cold Weather gear. Once at the clothing distribution center, I changed into the cold weather pants and packed everything […]
My alarm went off hours after sunrise but I wasn’t ready for it. Orientation started at 9 a.m. in a building next door to my hotel. Despite a head of fog, I managed to find the right building. We watched videos that romanticized the ice continent and I tried very hard to keep my eyes […]
By the time my plane touched down in Sydney, I was 30. Not too shabby to spend my birthday in a new country and a new city. It was an overcast and slow Sunday morning in Sydney. I kept wondering where all the people were? Eventually it stuck that even metropolitan cities can be quiet […]