After a last run through the Botanical Gardens and a final indulgent, long shower, I caught a 5:45am shuttle to the International Antarctic Center, located right next to the airport. The center is a tourist attraction, but the back of it also holds the offices for New Zealand, US, Italian, and Korean Antarctic Programs.
Your first stop at the center is at the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to pick up all your Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear. On the first full day in Christchurch, you head out to the CDC so they assign you all your mandatory ECW gear that you'll need while deployed. There can be almost 1,500 people on Ice in the summer so they have a TON of gear. You keep mixing and matching until you get all the gear that fits you. Then, you leave it at the CDC until the morning of your flight.
When you fly to Antarctica, you are expected to board the plane wearing a minimum set of ECW gear. Unfortunately, because it is made for surviving Antarctica, it is miserably warm to wear in New Zealand and especially inside. Most folks wear their personal clothes as long as possible before putting on the ECW gear to board the flight. Luckily, once you are on the plane, you can change back.
While the centre is next to the Christchurch airport, we don't use the customer facing side. We go to a room that is in the same building as the CDC, get scanned in, get our luggage weighed, get ourselves weighted, then go through a safety briefing, and then wait. We don’t have to take our laptops out or take any boots off. When it is time to go, we exit out the back of the building and get on a shuttle that likely heads over to the Christchurch airport where we board a US military C-17 Globemaster down to Antarctica. The C17 is a regular plane that can land on the Ross Ice Shelf and a specially groomed ice runway with wheels as well as a normal runway.
The C-17 has a ton of cargo down the middle and jump seats along the side. On more passenger heavy flights one of the cargo 'racks' is a set of regular airplane seats. I've always preferred the jump seats on the outside because they are colder and you can get up easily. Folks pass the time on the 5 hour flight the same they do on any other flight. One pleasant difference is that you get two free lunches, but I think the second one is just in case the plane can't land at McMurdo and has to boomerang back to Christchurch. On a clear day, you can look out the window and get amazing views as you cross the mountains. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and there wasn't anything to see.
Once we are off the plane, some vets head right for the transport to town. Others are very excited about their first visit and take a ton of photos. I was riding with some Kiwis that work for Antarctica New Zealand who were coming down for the first time to learn about the base they were supporting. They were only there for a six day whirlwind tour and were very excited to be there. It was a good reminder for me to let go of any ideas or hopes that I had. It reminded me to just embrace the special things that happen and that you can only see and do in Antarctica. The folks who have been going down a while have a term for the new high energy folks, FNG’s (pronounced fin-Gs, meaning F'ing new guys/girls). I can say from experience that after you are worn down from a long season, the high energy folks can be a bit much, but they are a great reminder of why we went down in the first place. I am hoping to lean HEAVILY into that attitude on this deployment.
After a short. FNG photo session, we get on Ivan, the Terra Bus. I can't remember the details, but it is one of the more unique vehicles in the world. It is a 13-mile-ish trip across the Ross Ice Shelf to McMurdo Station with a quick stop at Scott Base so the Kiwis can unload. Scott Base is just after the area that the ice shelf butts up against the sea ice and Ross Island. The transition between the three can make for some bumpy driving. Ross Island is a volcanic island that hosts the southernmost active volcano in the world, Mt. Erebus. It has been to know to spit small lava bombs out of its crater and has been technically continuously erupting since 1972, but I don’t know the last time it destructively breached its sides. Anyway, after Scott Base, we drove the last 2 miles to MuMurdo on the road.
Upon arrival, I had no idea if I would get a 'straight through' where you get on the same day flight to the Pole. I learned there was a flight that night, but no one told me I was on it. I was given a room so it seemed like I’d be staying the night.. That meant I got to catch up with old friends and visit old haunts. I'll share some McMurdo photos in the next post.
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