#3 - Mcmurdo 1

We finally made it to the ice, but not after much difficulty!

We we're delayed another day since the last email due to weather, but that did give us the opportunity to check out a little more of New Zealand. We ended up hiking up the side of an old volcano just outside of Christchurch. It was nice to get out of town

 

The next day was fraught with difficulties, if the weather wasn't preventing us from leaving, it was mechanical issues. I think I described the situation pretty well to my housemate Francesca:

the repair guys for our c-130 gave us an hour and a half time frame for a broken communications module, that turned into three hours and they decided to switch us to another plane, but on that plane there was a ski/landing gear malfunction then after they moved our bags to another plane, and we got on but couldn't take off due to the inverter that turned out to be "broke broke" , so we had to wait another 3 hours while they moved our gear back to the 1st plane. Luckily it worked that time. It was a long wait though.

However, we did finally arrive in Antarctica at around midnight. The views from the plane along the way were fantastic.

Over the past few days We've been settling in, attending required safety and regulatory briefings, and most recently, attending the Christmas party and dinner, both of which were excellent. (It's already Christmas here since we're a day ahead.) Things are a bit more quiet down here this year, the sequester and government shutdown have reduced staff and the number of research projects going on, right now there are about 600-700 people here, last year at this time there were 1000+.

 

Over the next few days we'll be packing overtime for our field sites in the Dry Valleys where we'll be camping for several weeks. We plan to leave for the field Monday, after which you all won't be receiving any emails from me for awhile.  

In any case, Merry Christmas!