Campervanning around New Zealand with Aunt Karen and the Ice Children

2/18
5 of us (4 shuttlers and a cargo), known as Aunt Karen and the Ice Children rented a campervan to do a week long roadtrip through new zealand. We were a an eclectic and eccentric group feature Aunt Karen (shuttle Shafer, 65 year old from Manhattan with a farm in cooperstown), Monicargo (cargo Monica, 40 something from Minnesota), Shuttle Jerod, Shuttle Elisha, and myself. We first hung out a bit in christchurch saying goodbye to people and enjoying the flowers and nice weather. We then picked up our 6 person campervan (which we called Connie Cup--Connie is a woman that shafer respected in her younger years and the license plate was Cup 269. After picking Connie up, we stopped at a store (what are those fruit and vegetable things) and then headed towards Arthur's pass national park. We made some stops along the way for nice views. The best stop was something called the stream cave where we walked down to a cave and then walked for an hour or so through a cave, upstream in the water, where we had to often wade up to our belly buttons in water. From there, we moved onto Arthur's pass where we witnessed a gorgeous sunset over the high snowcapped mountains. We met up with shuttle nate and his girlfriend and camped out in the woods somewhere.

2/19 We (Elisha, Monica, Jerod, and myself) hiked up a Avalanche peak (about 1800m). It was a little bit socked in, but we still got some very, very nice views. At the very top it was completely fogged in, but it made the views more spectacular as we headed down. We some some Keas (mountain parrots) up at the top. The beginning of the hike was through a cloud forest type ecosystem with lots of waterfalls, and the 2nd half was through the alpine with some nice blooming alpine flowers. The trail was incredibly steep and when we got down, Monica and Jerod were tired, but Elisha and I took Shafer on a bit of a hike to see the very impressive devils' punchbowl falls, which we had seen the whole time across the canyon while climbing up Avalanche peak. We camped the night in Arthur's pass national park

2/20
We drove to the west coast to Franz f and Fox Glacier through a bit of rain. We drove along the coast a bit and then stopped for fish and chips. I had been in NZ way too long to not have had fish and chips yet! When we got to Franz Josef, the rain gave way and we hiked up to the foot of the glacier. On the way back we played around the waterfalls and on the cool rocks that the glacier carved out. Monica is a geologist, so she could tell us all about the rocks. We then drove on to fox glacier (which I somewhat remembered from when I was there when I was six) and again the rain finished right as we got there (and started right as we got back to the campervan). We again hiked up to the foot of the glacier. In my opinion, this was a cooler glacier. In absolutely pouring rain, we drove to the coast and camped by the beach. It poured all night and we all agreed, this is why one rents a campervan in New Zealand!

2/21 It rained a lot of the day as we drove through Mt. Aspiring National Park. We drove through a really cool, narrow gorge with a glacial river running through it and waterfalls dropping everywhere right near the road. We stopped to check out a few waterfalls along the way and Elisha and I did a crazy bushwhack through the super wet, wet rainforest (with cool deep and soft moss carpets) to find another waterfall. We stopped for fish and chips (shafer's treat) and icecream (monica's) at Wanaka. On the way to Mt. Cook National Park, we drove by a gorgeous, gorgeous glacial blue lake complete with a rainbow over it. Normally you can see Mt. Cook (New Zealand's tallest peak) from here, but clouds obscured the view. When we got to Mt. Cook NP, it was raining pretty good, so we went into a fancy lodge with a fire and the rest of them did some internetting while I just relaxed. From our camp site we could see the bottom of some of the peaks with glaciers peaking through the fog.

2-22
Woke up to clear skies and saw the gorgeous pink glow on the glaciated mountains as the sun rose. I think I surprised everyone b/c I got moving fast, got everything cleaned up in the camper and drove to the trailhead. I've been around enough mountains, especially in super moist areas to know that when you get clear skies and good weather, you don't waste time. Elisha and I did another bushwhack to climb a hill to get a superb view of Mt. Cook and a glacial lake while the rest of the crew woke up, had breakfast, and had their coffee. When we got back we all set off toward hooker valley. Along the way we had nice views of the big mountains and rivers and flowers and crossed two cool suspension bridges. We also heard several and saw a few avalanches (something else I distinctly remember from coming here when I was 6). We arrived at our destination of hooker lake (?) right as mount cook was starting to disappear behind clouds. The lake was a glacial lake with a glacier coming right down to it. The lake was full of icebergs, which of course temped Jerod and I to go for a swim. Cold and refreshing! We also had quite a lot of fun skipping rocks. We walked the last mile back to the camper in a light drizzle and then the big rain came right as we got to the camper. We all decided to splurge for 2 dollar (5 minute) hot showers. We then continued on and stopped at a little town for fish and chips. And this was the best one of the trip, the real deal fish and chips. So tasty! We then drove some more towards Christchurch before camping somewhere along the side of the road

2/23
Drove to Christchurch. Sad, sad, sad, sad goodbyes to Aunt Karen and the ice children. Shafer was going to be going on to Australia, Elisha another week in NZ before going to Australia, Jerod another week in NZ before going to LA and then home and monica was going to be spending quite a lot more time in NZ.
Got on the plane to Auckland and then on to LA and then onto Denver. Denver was having nasty weather, so there was a delay. Got picked up by the Estes Park shuttle. Same guy that had taken me down to the airport when leaving for Antarctica. It was really snowy when he took me and really snowy picking me up.

an extra sad goodbye to Antarctica

From the 12thish to the 16th, I was pretty sick, which really sucked because it was my last week in Antarctica and I just couldn't really participate in all the events at the end. I did manage to make it to work, but during our 3 days off (1 for my normal day off, 1 for transitioning back to days (yes I had to transition back to days while being sick), and 1 for packing), I couldn't really have fun because I was so sick. I finally went to the doctor on the 16th and found out the chills and fever and muscle aches were probably caused by an influenza type virus. Then I also had tonsilitis. I tested negative for strept but the doc figured I had some other type of bacterial infection (or mono), but antibiotics did clear it up. Besides all of those diseases, I think I was suffering from a very bad case of depression. I was so sad to be saying good bye to McMurdo and all the wonderful people. It still makes me sad thinking about it. On the last days some people from shuttles gave me notes and when I read them once I got home, I got a little teary eyed. They were so nice to me, said such kind words. I guess they really appreciated me and it really made me so happy and miss them all the more. Dang, I had such a great time. The most amazing people, the most amazing place. I really wish I could just describe how amazing it was, but there is no possible way. Ahhh, what a place, what people, what unreal amazingness.

My group of friends and I redeployed back to New Zealand on the 17th of February. A huge storm was brewing and on the way, but we got out right before it hit. Originally ATO (my department, shuttles, cargo, and air services--there were 31 of us) had basically got the C-17 as our private jet b/c air services put everyone else on the 757 coming down, but the weather was too bad for the 757 so instead we had 150 or so people on the 17. I was feeling much better, so the flight was good.

We arrived in New Zealand in the dark. First time I had seen outside darkness since I left new zealand. It was also weird to feel humidity, have smell in the air, and other sounds. Kind of strange, but it wasn't as weird to me as it was for others. Elisha didn't find it too strange either. She said it was probably b/c me and her had traveled and moved around so much before that our bodies and senses were more used to it.

We went out for Indian and had some beers by the pool of our hotel. All kind of sad and knowing we were all going to have to say goodbye soon

Polar Plunge

2-09-12

We had a beautiful and balmy (22F), windless evening, so after pickle ball, I decided to finally go for the polar plunge. I walked out to hut point where the ice had been moved away by the icebreaker and there is some relatively open water. Of course, during the night, the open water had freezed a tiny bit since it had been calm so there were thin chunks of ice still floating everywhere. To jump in, I walked out on an ice flow beached on shore and jumped in. As I was drying myself off at the point a couple minke whales came in right near where I had jumped in, which was pretty cool.

2-11-12
We had our final night shift roll call (free drinks provided for by the boss), which was fun b/c all of us night shifters in ATO/Shuttles have become quite close. Later that evening (after us night shifters had gone to bed and then woken up again), we had our shuttle group picture, which included a ride out in the delta with a huge cooler of jungle juice. After the photo and our "graduation" ceremony, we all headed out to the bars and the Hut 10 jano party for some dacning. The sun is getting close to setting at night, and it was absolutely gorgeous as we left the party with an orange glow all around and the sun reflecting of the still water, but being interupted in areas by floating icebergs.

The Moon and Antarctica

had to steal a title from a modest mouse album after watching one of the most incredible moonrises I have ever seen. The moon was incredibly huge, the sky impossibly soft blue, and it appeared to be rolling down a glowing pink Mt. Erebus cool time-lapse video from my grantee friend Colin

http://colin-ho.com/antarctic-timelapsings/