2-21-13
My supposed last full day in Antarctica. I spent it mainly cleaning up my office,
packing, cleaning up my room, and bag dragging.
At night Mindy and Reinhart held a party and we made sure to finish up
all our alcohol before leaving the rock.
2-22-13
I was originally scheduled to fly out today, but bad weather
moved in overnight and we were weather delayed for 24hrs due to blizzard
conditions. One day delay wasn’t the end
of the world because Mitch and I would still be able to road trip for a day to
Kaikoura and it allowed us more time to hang out with friends. At night we continued our Friday night movie
and drinks (we scrounged some up) at the dive locker watching the prequel to
the Thing (we had watched the original thing on Wednesday night when we had
thought we would not have another Friday)
2-23-13
Woke up to more driving snow and another 24 hour weather
delay. This was a bummer because Mitch
and I originally had 4 days planned to hang out looking at whales, swimming
with dolphins, and hiking the coastal mountains near Kaikoura. With this delay, combined with Travelocity
making us fly one day earlier, we now would have no days roadtripping New
Zealand. On top of this, Elisha and I
became a bit nervous about catching our flights. We had flights back home booked for the 25th. I was originally supposed to redeploy on the
22nd and her on the 24th.
But now with my group of people delayed until the 24th, even
if my plane made it, hers might not come.
Luckily as I knew how things worked, I had packed some extra
underwear and a pair of shoes into my day pack during bag drag. During bag drag, which we did on the 21st,
they take all of your bags and load them up on pallets. If you are delayed for any reason, you do not
get your bags back. During bag drag, you
must wear your extreme cold weather gear (including bunny boots) to get
weighed. People not familiar with the
process were then left with only one set of clothes and only their bunny boots
and windpants for all the days we were delayed.
2-24-13
We woke up to beautiful skies and high hopes that both my
flight and Elisha’s flight would make it.
We went to our last Antarctic Sunday brunch. I was on the first flight, which was going to
be a Royal Air New Zealand 757 (with windows!).
Elisha was going to be on the standard C-17 Air National Guard plane (no
windows). I was excited about the
prospect of having a window seat, and I played my cards right to ensure I got
one. As a former shuttle driver and
still member of the shuttle family, I got the VIP seats on the new Kress
vehicle, which meant I had a nice ride out to the airport as well as I would be
the first one of the 91 people flying to get out. As the first one out and the first one to
board the plane, I got to pick a seat in the very back that would have access
to window out both the right and left of the plane.
The flight out was amazing!
Awesome views back towards Ross Island and Mt. Erebus. We were high enough that you could even see a
bit into the crater. Then sweet views of
the glacial tongues coming out into the Ross sea and of course the stunning
mountains and glaciers as we flew of Victoria land. It was the first time I’d been on a plane
going to or from Antarctica with windows, and it was truly amazing!
Upon arrival, Mitch and I hurried to get some thai food
before the restaurants closed (things close up around 9:30pm in Christchurch
and we arrived to the restaurant at 9:32, but the lady recognized me from my
frequent visits when I was stranded in Christchurch during Winfly (probably bc
of my humorous attempts and speaking Thai to her), so she served us and gave us
a chance to run to find an ATM. Mitch
and I then headed out to a bar where we eventually met up with Matt, Abe
Phyle, and Carried. Around Midnight, we heard that Elisha’s
flight had arrived and that they were at their hotels. Poor Elisha arrived so late and still had to
organize her things, that she told me the next day that she only slept for 30
minutes before she had to catch her 3:30am shuttle. I stayed up until around 1:30am, but I got more
sleep bc my hotel was closer to the airport and my shuttle wasn’t arriving
until 4:30am
2-25-13
Our first early morning flight was from Christchurch to
Sydney. We had beautiful sunrise views
over the glaciated Southern Alps, including New Zealand’s highest, Mount
Cook. We had a layover in Sydney for
several hours before the long haul flight to LA on Qantas. I’m currently waiting in LA waiting for our
connecting flight to Denver where hopefully dad will be there to pick us up on
drive us on home to Estes. Mom said her
flight yesterday into Denver was delayed because of snow, and when I looked at
the weather, it’s much colder in Denver than in Antarctica. Kinda funny if you ask me. I’m very excited to be getting home!!
It’s crazy some of the things that you take for granted when
you live in the real world, but kind of shock you when you come back to the
real world after being in Antarctica.
Some examples:
Children
Pets
Smells
Color
Plants and green grass
Stars and darkness
Humidity
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Milk
Traffic
Fashion
Fast Internet
Cell Phones
Food that costs money
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