DC on The Ice

New Blog

2009-09-27T22:17:00.004+13:00

Just a quick note to say that for my next trip to Antarctica (which I leave for in 4 weeks), I'll be using another blog, which can be found at:
http://dc-onice2.blogspot.com/

I hope you follow me on this coming trip, and enjoy my content...

Two trips to Willy's Field

2008-12-12T10:25:00.007+13:00

Ok, so after we found out that our flight wasn't going ahead, Naomi, Glen and I went for a drive. About 8km from Scott Base is Williams Field- the runway for ski-equipped planes. This includes smallish Twin Otters and big LC-130 Hercules. This is where the planes fly from to the South Pole (about 5 flights a day to the pole at the moment). Planes also go from here to the deep field camps. So it's a pretty busy place.
Also based at Willy's is the LDB project- where they send Long Duration Balloons way up into the stratosphere in the hope that they'll get into the polar vortex- winds that whip around and around Antarctica for a month or two each summer. The balloons manage to stay up for ~30 days, and can circle Antarctica a couple of times! So these balloons are pretty massive- they're not that big on the ground, but once they get up to altitude they expand. The payloads that they carry are assembled in the tallest buildings on the continent!
Anyway, the launch didn't go ahead, as they have to wait for perfect weather conditions- including consistent winds both at ground level and at the high altitudes which they'll be flying at.

So, after getting back from our drive, Glen and I decided to head out on the mountain bikes back out there for some exercise. The road is pretty well maintained, and it was actually easier than riding on the roads around Wellington! It's all pretty flat, and there's not much traffic. It's on the Ross Ice Shelf, which is a floating mass of ice which has come off the glaciers surrounding it. It
s the pressure of it ramming into Ross Island near Scott Base that causes the pressure ridges. On the road these aren't as severe, but you get pressure rollers which look like big swells in the ocean- very cool to ride over.

It took us about 20-30 minutes to ride each way, altho it took a bit longer on the way back because we took some photos. A very nice way to spend an extra day in Antarctica! A bit of exercise too.

The LDB buildings. The two big buildings are where they put together the science payloads which hang below the balloons. The big vehicle is called The Boss (after Ernest Shackleton), and is used to launch the balloons.

Glen and I at Williams Field.

Twin Otter taking off.

LC-130 Hercules.

The strange thing about this sign was that you could read it from the far side of the road- where you're supposed to be!

Glen riding along..

Turning round to see if I'm here to bike or just take photos!

Out at Willy's again..

Twin Otter taxiing to take off.

Three different modes of transport. Glen on the bike, then a reasonable small American vehicle, and then their big-assed Delta trucks.

Biking round..

Cruising.

Doing some skids! haha.

Awesome Twin Otter kitted out for some geophysical surveys- it's got a Lidar, ground penetrating radar, absolute gravity meter, magnetometer (sp?). All positioned with some reasonably high accurate GPS, but the guy wouldn't tell me how they're processing it, haha.

If you go off the groomed road, you don't get very far!

Glen, with Erebus in the background.

Glen and I riding along.

Me with Erebus behind.

Glen riding back.

Ivan the Terra Bus, with some American Hagglunds behind.

Stay of execution

2008-12-11T19:27:00.001+13:00

Team,
Just an update- our flight has been put back till Saturday now. There was a mechanical problem with the plane this morning, which they fixed, but not to the standard that Boeing want for passengers or something, so they're working on getting approval. Anyway, we'll be coming back on either a C17 or a C130 Hercules on Saturday- fingers crossed.
So today, after waiting for ages to see if our flight would go ahead, headed out to Willies Field in a toyota to see the Long Duration Balloon launch, but it ended up being postponed.
Later in the afternoon, Glen and I biked out there (on the ice shelf), which is ~8km each way. It's a very nice ride! Photos to come later!

Marching orders

2008-12-11T09:19:00.003+13:00

Well, the time's finally come to return to New Zealand. Our plane is supposed to leave around 9:30 I think. It's a C-130 Hercules, so it'll be a looong flight- getting to Christchurch late afternoon.

I'm going to be pretty sad to leave this place. The only consolation is that I'll be coming back next year.. I do have to wait 10.5 months for that though!

It's been a spectacular 5 weeks- to the point that its overwelming. The place is just so immense, and so awe-inspiring, that your brain can't quite comprehend it all.

And then, at the same time, it's all kinda easy. You get on a plane in Christchurch and 5 hours later you're stepping off in Antarctica! For the majority of the time that I've been here, the weather's been great and it hasn't really hindered our work at all. You dress a little differently, but its not really restrictive, and you have a few limitations on where you can go, but otherwise it's all pretty easy. And really, we have limitations in NZ around where you can go with property rights etc.

Most of the time we've been at Scott Base, which is kept warm to the point that we just wear t-shirts and jeans. You look outside and it's a bright sunny day with a little bit of a breeze, and it's not until you go outside that you feel a bit of a chill.

When there isn't a breeze, which isn't uncommon, its usually quite warm- to the point that you sometimes don't need a jacket, and if you're doing some physical work, you can get by in short sleeves.

But it is the windchill that gets you. It saps the warmth right out of you and you have to protect all your skin from it. But because you're aware of the risk you take more precautions. I've often been a lot colder in the mountains of NZ than I've ever been down here, because you're aware of the risk, and you don't want to be the guy that gets sent home for frostbite.

Anyway, thats a bit of a rant, and now I've got to go say goodbye to the great people that work here, and thank them for being so accepting of us. We've really felt like part of the team here, which is great!

I might write another sort of summary once i get back, and have had a chance to digest it all.

Evening bike-ride..

2008-12-08T22:24:00.003+13:00

Ok, another quick post with some photos.
This evening Naomi and I went for a bike ride across the hill, past McMurdo, to Hut Point (the site of Scott's Discovery hut). From there we walked up the Hut Point Ridge Trail for a bit, before getting bored and deciding to bike some more.

Oh, and my flight's been put off a day, so now heading back on Thursday, sweet.

Looking north over the ridges in the seaice. It really looks like the frozen sea that it is when you're up higher.

Being saintly in front of Mary.

Naomi looking out over the part of a frozen sea that is McMurdo Sound.

Naomi, Hut Point, McMurdo Sound and Mt Discovery.

Just wanted a photo in front of this wannigan labelled 'DC'. :-)

Skiing in Antarctica

2008-12-07T19:14:00.004+13:00

Team,
So I know its been a while, and this may be my last post from the ice (I'm scheduled to leave on Wednesday). But most of our work's been around base, so there haven't been many photos. And I've been living it instead of writing about it!

Anyway, today was the opening of the Scott Base Skifield. So here's some photos from that. It was a great day of skiing (especially for someone like me- i think this was my 5th day skiing!).

The president of the Ski Club arriving!

The throng of onlookers. We were told to wear something shiny and a nice hat!

El Presidente exiting his vehicle. The president this year is Ian- the AFT instructor that came to Cape Roberts with us.

It's the Presidents privilege to make the first run of the season.

Crossing the tape at the bottom.

Giving his opening speech.

Naomi ready to ski!

The Slope.

El Presidente showing us how it's done..

On the tow-rope.

Coming off the tow.

Tracey casually snowboarding.

Naomi kicking up some snow.

Raaaahhhhh!

Mmmmm, BBQ!!

Smiling for the camera!

Posing for the camera.

Pretending to fall over for the camera.

The bottom of the slope, from the top of the tow.

Some of the view from the top.

Bringing in the GPS

2008-12-03T17:01:00.004+13:00

Alrighty, a few more photos to keep you going...

So today we took down out GPS that was sitting on the seaice outside Scott Base since last Friday.. We left it running longer than usual for a couple of reasons, including the fact that we put it out early before a storm came through, and that we were off base yesterday so couldn't take it down then.

So after digging the big hole, the storm came through and filled it back up again. As you can see, it's pretty much back to the original level again. So we had to dig that all out back down to the ice (carefully so that we didn't disturb the instrument) so that we could check that the height of it hadn't changed. Once we'd done that, we had to fill the hole back up again, so that no-one fell in it. And so that a penguin didn't fall in and couldn't get out! haha.

The GPS in the 'hole'.

GPS with Ob Hill in the background.

The snow melted off certain parts (the darker ones) of the case first- pretty sweet.

Digging out the hole.. Well, posing at this stage.

Glen re-drilling the hole so that we could measure to the water-level.

Thats a lot of drill.. That's ice at the bottom of the hole.

In the hole.

Again, tidying up the hole. Gives another meaning to 'snowcraft' really.

The covered-in hole.

We got our gear to and from the hole with a sled. This is me pulling it. It wasn't actually that hard..

Pretending to be a sled dog! ;-)

Yus! Finally managed to get some frost on my beard!!!

A Wander around the Ob Hill Loop track

2008-11-30T17:20:00.004+13:00

Quick post to get some more photos up..

So we had a bit lot of snow last Thursday- massive flakes, with no wind.. Pretty impressive. It was American Night at the bar, so here's a photo of some americans walking in..

Mmmm, snow.

Then on Friday we managed to get out and dig our hole down through to snow to the sea-ice. This was so that we could drill through the ice to measure from the sea-level to the GPS for our tide calibration. The hole ended up being about a metre deep, and 2x3m in size.
Then we had a bit of a blizzard on Saturday, so when we went out to check our hole today it looked like this:

I'm glad I put the GPS on a little shelf instead of in the bottom of the hole, otherwise we would've been forced to dig it out to ensure it was still going.

Today (Sunday), there was an art & craft market on at McMurdo, so we went for a wander over to take a look. We decided to tie in a walk around the Observation Hill Loop Track, which goes around the bottom/middle of the hill. It was a really nice walk!

There are quite a few trails around the Hut Point penninsula (where McMurdo and Scott Base are). They usually have these markers.

Glen on the track- the little bit of uphill..

Wandering along.

Still going. Quite a well defined and easy track really. Even with the snow drifts on some parts.

Looking down at McMurdo.

Overnight at Cape Evans with AHT

2008-11-29T17:01:00.007+13:00

Hi guys,I'll try and make it quick, as the bar's been opened early as it's a bit of a holiday down here, and its not really outdoors weather. The base staff got the afternoon off today, as the Americans at McMurdo are celebrating Thanksgiving. They tend to saturday-ise holidays down here, so that you get the Saturday and Sunday off (seeing as its a 6 day working week). There's also a bit of a storm going on. While the temperatures are really warm (-6.7°C), there's a lot of wind going on- ~40 knots (a knot is about 1.8km/h). This makes the windchill around the -30°C mark. We also had a fair bit of snow a couple of days ago, so that's getting blown all over the place out there- spindrift.

We set up our GPS out on the sea-ice in front of Scott Base yesterday (which involved digging a 1x3x2m hole in the snow first to get to the ice). So we're hoping that it hasn't been blown away. We would go out to check, but the weathers too bad. We're getting glimpses of it through the spindrift, so we know its still there.. We guyed it down, and it's kinda sheltered by the hole, so fingers crossed. I also splashed some water round the legs to help freeze it in. Will try and get some photos next time we go out- there was a lot of spindrift when we were setting it up, so not good for photos.

Anyway, this post is about a couple of days (Wednesday and Thursday) which we spent at Cape Evans.This was the base for Captain Robert Falcon Scott's expedition to the South Pole, from which he never returned. (His ship was called the Terra Nova, for the record). The Antarctic Heritage Trust conservators (see a previous post) have just moved to this hut, after completing work at Shackletons hut at Cape Royds. They're working out of converted shipping containers which are currently sitting on the sea-ice. They camp on the land a couple of hundred metres away (apparently the polar tents are warmer).

So we were doing similar work at Evans as we were doing at Royds- surveying the hut for vertical movement. We also did some other work for the AHT- surveying some features around the site which can be used for the relative positioning of artifacts that will be discovered in the ice surrounding the hut. A recent problem at Cape Evans has been the buildup of ice and snow around the southern side of the hut. A few years ago you were able to step directly from the snow onto the roof, and there's still over 1.5m of solid ice in places! To counter this 5 'vortex generators' were installed last week to try and stop the wind from depositing snow around the hut. They're also putting gravel (scoria) on top of the ice so that the sun melts it. Anyway, we did some cross-sections so that the level of melting will be able to be quantified.

It was great to spend a night there- talking to the conservators about their work and just being away from base was good. Glen and I slept in a wannigan (a little hut on a sled), which was ok, except for the wind which we were sure was going to push us all the way across McMurdo Sound!

I found Scott's hut to have a completely different feel to Shackleton's. At Shackleton's you walked into this big open space, and there was a lot of light streaming in. Scott's on the other hand, felt dark and cold, and everything was broken up into cubicles a lot more. Scott's hut was also used by Shackleton's marooned Ross Sea Party, and they burnt a lot of seal blubber in the hut, so the soot from that darkened the place, but it definitely had a different feel. Shackleton's was welcoming, whereas at Scott's you felt like you shouldn't be there..

Anyway, onto the photos:

Uncovering a dog skeleton which has been covered up to help preserve it.

Jana, one of the conservators walking back to their camp.

Looking across McMurdo Sound.

Geared up for some Antarctic surveying. Note the head-torch!

Here's why I needed the torch- so that we could see the tape in the dark stables.

Glen in the stables.

Pony snow-shoes!!

Seal blubber. I think its from Shackleton's marooned Ross Sea Party, who used the hut later.

Inside the hut.

Mmmm, cocoa...

Some mustard.

Everything was stamped.

More boxes.

More cocoa.

They drank lots of cocoa.

Good South Canterbury cheese!

Food for the journey.

Some chemistry stuff...

Inside the darkroom.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott's cubicle. This is where one of the more famous photos of him was taken.

Another view of the hut.

The Vortex Generators in action!

Vortex Generators and the hut.

Some photos of a Polar Bear* I saw...

2008-11-28T21:45:00.004+13:00

Part of a programme to relocate them here seeing as the Arctic ice is almost all gone..

*Toy

Let me know if you were convinced.. :-)

Cape Royds- History and Penguins!!

2008-11-28T20:43:00.010+13:00

EDIT: Forgot the watermark, so gotta post again..

Hi All,
Sorry it's been a while since the last post. We're down to the last couple of weeks now, so I'm trying to do as much as I can instead of being in front of a computer doing these things! We've also been quite busy the last couple of days including another night away from base.

So, on Tuesay (the 25th) we hopped in a Hagglund with Ian, and headed out to Cape Royds, to do our survey work on the hut. Cape Royds is the site of Sir Ernest Shackleton's hut from his Nimrod Expedition. This was the trip that he got to within 100 miles of the pole, but realised he couldn't make it to the pole and back alive. In a letter to his wife, he wrote that it is better to be a "live donkey than a dead lion."

This is the first hut to be conserved by the Antarctic Heritage Trust people, and its pretty impressive the state its in. I'd really recommend looking at their website- they do some amazing work. They've moved onto Scott's hut at Cape Evans, but more about that in a future blog.

So our work is looking at some marks which we've installed on the building, and seeing if they're moving up or down. We have marks both outside the hut and on the floor. It's great to be doing work for such a good organisation, and I know that its personally the most rewarding work I've done down here.

Royds is also home to the southern-most Adele Penguin colony in the world. At the moment it's all males sitting on the eggs, while the females are off feeding. The sea-ice hasn't broken out as much as usual so far this year (it's still at Beaufort Island), so there's some concern that the females may not come back, as it's quite a walk!!

So yeah, now for some photos, as I'm knackered after digging a big hole in the snow for our tide gauge calibrations..

I'll try and put another couple of posts up this weekend.

Glen setting up the level outside the hut.

Glen with the instrument inside the hut. Taken from near the door.

Again, Glen surveying inside the hut.

Me on the staff inside the hut.

Some condensed soup tins.

Pure Preserved Cabbage anyone?

Inside the hut.

Mmmmm, Cod Roes!!

Birds Egg Powder that isn't made from eggs?

Boy, what a selection!

The hut, with Erebus in the background.

The hut from the other side. The penguin colony's in the background.

Penguins!

Going for a wander..

Some people are doing some study on them. It's involved fencing some of them off. I wonder how the females get back into the fenced bit. One was trying to escape down the bottom..

Trying to take off..

Lying on the nests..

Bit of a sing-along..

The main access route for them to get to the colony.

A little bit of rearranging..

Me outside the hut with Erebus in the background.

Warren the lone penguin that hangs out at Cape Evans.

He came really close to me!

He only noticed me when I moved- even with my bright orange on!

Wandering off..

Waddling off..

We stopped in at Cape Evans on the way back- this is Jana, one of the conservators. They were having trouble with the conservation of the stove at Evans, because it had a lot of blubber burned in it when the hut was used by Shackleton's Ross Sea Party...

Birthday Celebrations

2008-11-24T20:28:00.003+13:00

So, after the Skirt Party on Saturday night, I ended up sleeping in most of the morning of my birthday.. After a drawn-out sunday brunch and some blogging and facebooking I summoned up the resolve to do something proper to celebrate my birthday in spite of the hangover!

Now, the question begs, what to do on your 25th birthday in Antarctica!?! Well, it just so happens that there's something worthy of the day! We decided on an ascent of Observation Hill- the 200m tall cone above McMurdo Station, and a dominant part of our skyline here at Scott Base. Instead of walking to the bottom of it, we decided to bike!!! We grabbed some bikes and started riding over the hill (on the gravel road to Mactown). Now, Glen bikes to work every day from Korokoro to Wellington and back, something like a 24km round trip or something. I bike every second fine Sunday, which in Wellington isn't that often!! So I was slogging up the hill on the bike, in the granny gear, hungover as anything behind Glen, wondering if this was really the best way that I could celebrate turning 25!!

Eventually we made it, after a quick descent and a bit more of a climb (to the site of a nuclear reactor that used to power McMurdo before it leaked!!!). Then the whole walking up hills thing started, which is more my cup of tea, except when hungover! We did get there in the end- carefully as its reasonably steep, and there's still a fair bit of snow/ice on it at this time of year.

But wow, getting to the top was worth it. Observation Hill was where Scott's men waited and watched for the polar party to return, but they never did. They erected the cross there in their memory. Pretty full on to finally make it there on an important day for me too. Definately a birthday I won't forget in a hurry!

After a return to base which took us about a fifth of the time, we were walking back to our room, and I was told to hurry up because they couldn't eat dessert until I cut my cake!!!
It was really nice of them to do it, as usually event personnel don't really get the privilege of having a cake baked for their birthdays- only the base staff. But I guess because we're here for so long at base, we kinda get treated a little differently. Anyway, I really appreciated it. There's quite a spate of birthdays here at the moment- 6 in 6 days! So birthday cake evey night!! haha.

Now, some photos from Ob Hill and my cake!

McMurdo Station below the cross on top of Ob Hill.

Me hanging out on the top of Ob Hill.

Birthday Cake!!!

Cutting the cake!

Dry Valleys extravaganza! Friday 21 November

2008-11-23T20:04:00.014+13:00

Ok, so this is a bit of an epic post- lots of photos, so i'll try and keep the text down.

On Friday we went to the McMurdo Dry Valleys region to do some work. In the late 1980's, survey beacons were installed on trig marks throughout the region for survey work. In NZ we tend to use the sort of triangular black and white trig beacons that you've seen around on top of hills, and beside some roads. Down here they used two or three old oil drums stacked on top of each other bolted or welded together, guyed down and filled with rocks! These days the techniques for positioning down here such as GPS don't really need that sort of infrastructure, so we're taking them out. They're also a bit of an eyesore, and an environmental risk as sometimes they go 'missing' off the tops of the hills. This can be a problem in delicate places like the Dry Valleys, which is an Antarctic Specially Managed Area. And it's never good to have big drums rolling round the place.

So Glen and I were really lucky, as the seven of these beacons that are left are all in these Dry Valleys (which are the ones I would've got first, haha). We were planning on getting four on Friday in the Kukri Hills and the Asgard Range, and then on Monday picking up the remaining three from the Olympus range. The Kukri Hills are between the Ferrar Glacier and the Taylor Valley, the Asgard Range is between the Taylor and Wright Valleys, and the Olympus range is between the Wright and the McKelvey Valleys (for those playing along at home). We managed to get 6 of the sites done in one day, which is pretty good. The beacons came down a lot easier than we were expecting- only one of them was welded together, and there weren't many warratahs to bash out.

The scenes were absolutely spectacular- the english language doesn't have the superlatives for it really. To have seen so many photos of the place, and then to finally get there was just stunning. I've been getting similar emotions down here, but this one took the cake. I'd rate it as one of, if not the best day of my life so far. Epic.

I think that one of the most intense things I'm kinda struggling to get my head around is that all this stuff is in darkness for a large part of the year! I dunno, it just seems stranger than it being in light for the same length of time. I guess its because as humans we'd find it so much more difficult to function... Hmmm.. thats my deep thought for the day!

Anyway, onto the photos. I've got some panoramas from this trip as well, but I'll upload them seperately, and I'm still working on some of them. Also, the photos from the helo have some smudgy marks on them- its reflections and stuff off the windows. I didn't really want to open the door!

The eastern end of the Kukri Hills, looking north. We're flying over the Ferrar Glacier.

The first beacon we got to- and it'd been blown over!!

Looking towards the Upper Taylor I think..

Searching for the survey mark- the mark was called Glen, so we looked quite hard. Unfortunately we couldn't find it.

The Commonweath and Canada Glaciers in the lower Taylor Valley.

Getting ready to carry the drums to the helo.

Taking the drums down the hill. For the record, I was carrying all our heavy tools, so didn't get out of work!

A cool little rock feature, with the upper Taylor Valley in the background.

Our lunch break.

So each of the beacons had 2 drums, and we were able to fit 6 in the back of the helo, with three of us as well- just. There wasn't much room!

At the Marble Point refuelling facility. The NZ one's the one in the middle- HNO.

This one was welded together, so we had to chisel it off- hence the earphones.

Still chiselling.

Towards the upper Taylor Valley.

Lake Vanda!!! The NZ huts are at this end of the lake- you can't quite see them on this downsized image. It used to be quite the NZ outpost- a few people even used to winter over here!

The Upper Wright Glacier, with the Labyrinth to the left of it. Rob the helo pilot wasn't too impressed with my "Where's the Lower Left Glacier?" joke! haha...

The top end of the McKelvey Valley.

Our beacon. One of the Guys had snapped, so it was on a bit of a lean.

Looking down the McKelvey. Bull Pass comes off to the right.

It says something about a place when your helo pilot who's been flying down here for something like 18 years gets out his camera and starts taking photos!

Chris, one of the base staff, about to attack the beacon! I think we couldn't get to one of the nuts so chiselled it.

The Upper Wright again. This mesa landscape is stunning.

HNO with the barrels ready to be loaded..

The Wright Valley.

Soaking it all in.

More of the Upper Wright.

HNO again.

The insignificance of the man eh?

About ready to go..

The last beacon of the day. Apparently its a four hour walk up from Vanda if you're keen. And the McKelvey Valley is in the background.

The reasonably narrow ridge we landed on.

Attacking the beacon!

Glen inspecting the mark.

Trying to fit 6 drums in the back again..

Awesome.

I got to ride back in the front! Whoop!

I wasn't allowed to touch anything, cos I had the live controls in front of me too.. I reckon with my flight sim experience I'd be able to have a good go at it, haha.. Again, Rob wouldn't have been impressed.

Bull Pass.

Glaciers of the Lower Wright.

View in the rear-vision mirror thats below your feet!

Coming in to land at Scott Base after an amazing day in the field.

Some panoramas from the Darwin

2008-11-23T14:37:00.003+13:00

Just another quick post with some more panoramas from the Darwin.

The Royal Society Range from the helicopter.

A cool glaciated headland. Again, from the helicopter.

From our first GPS point looking down towards the Byrd Glacier. This monster is about 18km wide! Thats ridiculous!

Overlooking the Darwin Mountains, and the Hatherton Glacier. Note the GPS in the foreground proves I am actually doing work here!

From pretty much the same spot at the previous one.

A mixed day at the Darwin Glacier (Nov 19)

2008-11-23T13:19:00.006+13:00

Ok, so I'm still trying to catch up here, its been a hectic week, and now its my 25th birthday today! It was the Scott Base Skirt Party last night, so everyone was wearing a dress or skirt. It was a good night, and a lot of laughs. It's a tradition as old as Scott Base, and dates back even further to Captain R.F. Scott's expeditions. So yeah, that was a big rowdy on the red wines! A few of us even did a sojourn to the wine bar at McMurdo Station for a quick drink (sans the dresses).

Anyway, the day after our return from Cape Roberts, we had a whole day of helo time to go down to the Darwin - Hatherton Glacier systems (around 80°S), to extend our mapping control. The area is one of the key parts of the Latitudinal Gradient Project (see their page here), which is a multidisciplinary project looking at how ecosystems change as you go further south, and also from sea level to the high plateau at the different latitudes. Because of this, there's a lot of kiwi science taking place in the region, so we're doing some mapping to support that.

The Darwin is about a two hour helicopter flight from Scott Base over some pretty impressive country, including Mt Discovery. It's a medium sized glacier by Antarctic standards, but its still pretty big! The mapping is done from satellite imagery, however we need to be able to fit the images to their position on the ground, so we go out and GPS features that can be identified on the images.

Unfortunately, the weather in the Darwin isn't very good. Last year they had a lot of trouble getting in and out of there, and while this year is a bit better, it can still be quite fickle. The glacier goes from the polar plateau to the Ross Ice Shelf, and consequently gets a lot of katabatic winds (winds that are caused by the dense colder air flowing down hill). So on our day, it turns out the katabatics were blowing, meaning that we couldn't get to the key sites that I wanted to. We hovered above one of them, and the airspeed indicator said we were still moving through the air at 50 knots! So thats not the sort of weather that you want to be standing near a cliff in!

Luckily, I'd picked some other sites which were lower priority, but there was no wind there, so we were able to do some work! Better than flying down for 2 hours just to refuel and fly back! It was crazy that these spots were completely calm, when we had all this wind in other locations. Especially when the ones that were calm were generally the high altitude sites. I guess its to do with the katabatics.

Anyway, onto the photos. There's not many, as the landscape really demands panoramics, and I haven't gotten round to tidying them all up yet. I've added one though, so let me know if you want to see more of them! I really suggest you click on the pano to see it in full screen.

Billy, our field safety person looking out over the mountains. The Ross Ice Shelf is to the right.

Flying south. This is the Mulock Glacier (i think thats the right spelling). It took us 10 minutes to fly across it!

Refueling the Helo. The fuel cache had been dug out the day before, which was good! We had to refuel when we first got down there, and again before flying back.

GPSing our first point (that rock on the left)

Another shot of the first point.

At the second point- where the panorama at the top was taken from.

Walking back down to the helo from the second point.

View over the Hatherton from our third point.

Our helicopter sitting on a frozen lake!! And the side of the glacier is above it!

Flying over one of our points. That's snow being blown over the side of a cliff! There was a heap of cold dense air going over that cliff.

On the way back we flew quite high to try and get out of the rough air. We were so high that we flew over the top of Mt Discovery. On the top there's these amazing cauliflower-like snow formations. They're truely stunning, and about 3-4 metres tall!

More of the formations

Epic.

With Mt Erebus in the background.

Pretty.

Cape Roberts- Day 4 - Back to base.

2008-11-20T12:50:00.002+13:00

So our last day at Cape Roberts was about tidying up and packing up to fly back to base.

We took down our GPS receivers, then surveyed in one of the marks which had the GPS on it. We had a bit of time to kill before the helicopter arrived, so took some posey surveying shots, as its hard to take them while you're working.

Some Americans turned up to pick us up and we had a great flight back to base.

Packing up the GPS.

Glen posing.

Pretending to survey.

What a poser!!!

I think its straight.

Waiting for the helo- Ian on top of the roof.

Helo landing.

Loading our stuff from the seaice.

Inside.

Cape Roberts - Day 3 (Monday) - Seal pups and big icebergs!

2008-11-20T11:11:00.011+13:00

Ok, so there's no surveying photos today, even tho we did check the GPS', and do more surveying round the Cape (I was on the pole most of the time clambering over the rocks- I think my knees ages about 5 years that weekend).

In the afternoon we went for a wander out and around some icebergs that are grounded nearby. It took the better part of an hour to walk around one of them, so it gives some idea of the scale.

Then in the evening again, we went for a walk to look at some seals.

My apologies for the captions below!

Probing the tide crack to check it was safe to get onto the sea-ice.

Walking towards the 'berg.

Tilted ice.

Getting closer.

Sorting out the cameras.

Pretty sweet.

Big crack through the middle.

Heading round the side of it.

Lots of photo oppourtunites.

Wow.

Impressive.

Ian with his probe.

Still walking..

A smaller berg in front.

Berg-on-berg.

Looks like a runny nose to me..

Cracks and tilted bergs.

Pretty blue!

Jumble of ice.

Awesome!

There were all these ice-flakes falling while we were wandering round. Put an amazing texture on the snow which looked like millions of diamonds had been scattered around.

Looking south.

Baby seal heading towards a hole (which it tried to fit down, but its too small).

Wondering why it can't fit.

Giving up, and coming to see what we're up to..

Peek-a-boo..

Isn't it a cutie!?!

This one was also as interested in us as we were in it!

Cape Roberts - Day 2 - Little Iceberg and some seals.

2008-11-20T10:50:00.004+13:00

Alright, so on our second day at Cape Roberts, we checked our GPS' in the morning, to make sure they were still going, then went for a wander round a little iceberg which was really close. In the afternoon we did a heap of surveying around the place, and then in the evening went for a walk to look at the seals again.

Walking towards the 'berg.

Ewww, pretty..

Ian (our field person) probing a crack with an ice-axe..

Wandering round for a look at the other side.

Icicles hanging off the side of the berg.

Glen walking, with Erebus in the background.

Seals, with our GPS in the background.

Seals!!

Raaahhh!! Mum's not impressed.

Raaaahhhh!!! Mum's more interested in us!

Baby seal!!

What are you guys up to?

Big seal!

It's still a big seal from any angle.

Walking back to our hut.

Cape Roberts- Day 1

2008-11-20T08:50:00.021+13:00

Ok, so I'm starting to realise the scale of the monster I've created by blogging quite often! Now that we're busy I'm struggling to keep up. So I think it's mostly gunna be photos from now on... I'll split our Cape Roberts trip into the 4 days, so u don't get overwhelmed with photos.

So last Saturday (the 14th) we headed out to Cape Roberts (see the map here) which is about 120km from Scott Base, but across McMurdo Sound, on the mainland.

We have a tide gauge there, which we calibrate each year to help ensure the long term accuracy of the data. The procedure involves setting up a GPS on the floating sea-ice and comparing those variations in height with the tide gauge heights.
We also completed some conventional survey work with a total station, to survey between most of the marks in the area to tie them all together consistently.

So on the first day, we flew out, set up our GPS gear did a bit of surveying, and settled in. There was a traverse going between Scott Base and Granite Harbour (just around the corner from Cape Roberts) who were staying at the hut on the Saturday night. They'd driven up from SB on the Friday (taking about 14 hours i think) to Cape Roberts in their two Hagglunds, towing sleds. Then on Saturday they went and picked up some gear from Granite Harbour, and drove back on Sunday. So there were 5 people in that group (mostly base staff- mechanics etc), with a lot of alcohol as well, so it made for an entertaining evening!

Just a warning- there's a large component of seal and iceberg photos over these 4 days, I've tried to cut down the numbers, but I took something like 1090 photos in the 4 days, so there was a fair bit of culling.

One of the valley's on the flight up.

Glen in the Helo.

Icebergs and the Trans-Antarctic Mountains.

Iceberg. Looks like baleen off a whale i reckon.

Cape Roberts! Granite Harbour in the background.

Unloading the Helo. This is the NZ Helicopters one- callsign HNO. Rob the pilot's great- he came to the Darwin with us yesterday, but more about that later.

View from the beach.

One of our GPS antenna's set up.

Drilling a crack in the seaice. We had to use a ladder to get across this one..

More drilling, and marking our route with flags.

Drilling the hole to measure the level of the water relative to the GPS.

GPS all set up, with Cape Roberts in the background.

Me posing with the GPS.

Emperor Penguin tracks!! Didn't see the actual penguin tho. This is where it's slid along on its stomach- u can see the flipper prints off to the side, and where it's used its feet in the middle.

Seals lazing around near a crack in the seaice.

Some icebergs from the Cape.

Lots of rocks to clamber over to get anywhere.

An 'evening' shot from the beach.

Hagglunds parked up.

Our home away from home. We stayed in tents on the first night as the hut was full.

Glen looking for seals.

Mackay Mountains I think...

Baby Seal!!!

Hagglunds still parked up.

Baby and mother!

Glen and the Hagglunds.

Antarctic Field Training- Day 2

2008-11-13T20:19:00.007+13:00

Ok, so day two of Antarctic Field Training started by us getting up and trying to eat our muesli before the milk froze! The weather had changed a bit and it was rather cloudy. Our instructor Ian then came back, and we packed up the polar tents.

Once everything was packed up, we headed to the A-Frame to warm up and have a bit of a talk about our camping experience. The A-Frame was a building that the Americans had thrown out, and was just sitting round not being used, so the Kiwis (back in the ‘70s I believe), Skua’d it and dragged it out onto the ice shelf for use as an escape from the madness of Scott Base. Apparently it was a favourite of Ed Hillary, and he spent one of his last, if not his last night in Antarctica out there.. It’s a really cool place, and is only a 40 minute ski from base.

Following this, we headed to a steep area of snow near the Scott Base skifield, and practiced self arresting before heading back to base for lunch! In the afternoon we went out and learnt about the sea ice (the ice which generally ‘breaks out’ each year, and refreezes in the winter). The ice in front of Scott Base is actually sea ice, although it hasn’t broken out since the early ‘90s I think. So on the sea ice, we learnt how to drill through it to the water below to determine the depth of it. This is used to determine whether you can drive on the ice, or specifically, to work out a profile of the ice around a crack in it, to evaluate the likelihood of it breaking under the weight of your vehicle.

The pressure ridges are big ruptures in the sea-ice caused by it getting crushed between the ice shelf (which is essentially a glacier) and the land. It causes these amazing shapes and colours in the ice.

That pretty much wrapped up the field training. Last night there was a presentation/movie by a woman who was in the team that became the first women to ski to the South Pole in the early ‘90s (the AWE expedition). It was contrasted in the movie with a Randolph Fiennes expedition which was going on at the same time, and that was pretty funny.

Today we’ve been sorting out our trip to Cape Roberts, which is from Saturday till Tuesday. There is an ‘ice train’ (a convoy of vehicles towing sleds) going up to Granite Harbour to move a camp at the same time, and they’re staying in the same hut as us. So there’s 8 or 9 people who will be wanting to stay in a 4 bunk hut. So we’ll be staying in tents the first night, before they head back to Scott Base the next day. Turns out it takes a while to sort everything out- a lot of forms to fill out and signatures to get before you can go into the field. But we’re getting through it, and are pretty much good to go.
So now, onto the photos!!!

The camp in the morning..

This is the preferred method of getting a polar tent to the appropriate size to fit inside the bag!

Loading up the Hagglund- not much horizon definition!

At the A-Frame.

Practising self-arresting.

About to go onto the sea-ice. The three Wannigans (the huts on sleds) got towed out to the Antarctic Heritage Trust's camp at Cape Evans where they're going to be starting the restoration of Scott's Hut (the one we started surveying the other day).

Drilling the sea-ice to measure its thickness.

The Helicopters NZ Helo coming in to land at Scott Base.

Pressure Ridges.

More pressure ridges.

Yet more pressure ridges.

Pressure ridges with a person, and Scott Base in the background.

Walking near the pressure ridges.

Smiling for the camera..

A meltwater pond amongst the ridges. These eventually melt through creating a hole which seals come through.

A crack in the ice. The poser will remain nameless..

Group shot.

Lagging behind the group..

Rebecca providing some scale. Pretty impressive eh..

Antarctic Field Training - Day 1

2008-11-12T22:23:00.006+13:00

Hey guys,
A couple of days since my last post. I've been on my Antarctic Field Training on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then today's been pretty busy, so I haven't been near the computer long enough to update the blog. I've split them into the two days so that its not too intense, so this is obviously day 1...

So I'd already done half of the first day earlier with Glen as his refresher, so I met the group after lunch when it was time to head out into the field. We packed our gear into the Hagglund and piled in- literally, we were sitting on top of all the gear in the back, which made for a rather comfortable ride!

Anyway, we cruised over to the AFT spot which is near the A-Frame (which I'll talk about in the next post). This is east of Scott Base, on the Ross Ice Shelf, so the ice is really thick, and in this area (called Windless Bight) is covered in a lot of snow.

Here we learnt how to set up the polar tents (a design thats hardly changed in the last 100 years), and general stuff about Antarctic camping (like using the toilet tent!). It was really good to get out there and experience some of the conditions and get amongst it.. We also covered building shelters in the snow, which was cool.

The best thing about the polar tents is that the floor isn't attached, so u can dig a hole in the snow in the middle of the tent that lets you put your boots on comfortably! How awesome is that!?! I reckon its brilliant!

So our instructor got us started, then headed off to the warmth of the A-Frame and left us to it. We cooked our dinner, and went for a walk, then generally headed off to bed. I, however, decided to keep going with the building of my snow shelter (a trench with blocks over the top), in the hope that I could sleep in it that night (even tho the weather was supposed to turn ugly). After another hour of digging and tidying up, I was happy enough with it to attempt to get ready for bed (it was about 11pm by this stage (and obviously still light)). So I struggled for about 10-15 minutes to get all my gears sorted and get into my sleeping bags, and crawling along into my trench (cos the roof on it was so low). By the time I got in there, I realised that the roof was so low that whenever I breathed I was knocking snow off the roof, and if I needed to get out in a hurry it would be quite a mission! So, I ended up bailing, and moving into a tent. If the shelter had been about 12" deeper it would've been fine, but as it was it was just too shallow.. I mean in an emergency it’d be sweet, but well, this wasn’t an emergency.

In the tent I was ridiculously warm (I’m a hot sleeper anyway (if I do say so myself)), so it didn’t really feel like a night camping in the Antarctic! We’re probably going to be camping at Cape Roberts this weekend in mountain tents, so the experience may be somewhat different, we’ll see..

Anyway, now for some photos from the first day, then I’ll write some more about the second day...

Loading up the Hagglund.

Me in the back of a bumpy Hagglund!

Setting up camp- Erebus in the background.

Our camp.

One of our team members is down doing a virtual fieldtrip for the LEARNZ project. They go around doing these fieldtrips, and the kids sit at school and get to follow them through the internet. Some of the schools send in these mascots which gives the kids a bit more of a connection with it. It sounds like a great programme- the website's http://www.learnz.org.nz/

So these guys are sitting down to dinner. I really wish we had projects like this when I was a kid. So any teachers out there- check it out!

We did a little video with each of us doing a shout-out to the schools with the mascots saying what we're doing down here. I might post it, however apparently I look like I'd scare the kids!

Sitting down at our snow block table with Erebus in the background.

Flag jousting!

A couple out for a walk with Mt Terror in the background.

Self portrait. This is the look which makes me look like I'd scare the kids. The mask is a neoprene one to try and cut down on my breath fogging up my goggles. It kinda works.

On an evening walk. Our camp on the right, the A-Frame to the left.

A lovely evening for a walk..

Naomi in the shelter I built.

About 11:30pm on the Ross Ice Shelf. We were in the shade from a cloud, but you can see that White Island in the background is still in full sunshine.

Daytrip to Cape Evans- and finally some survey work!

2008-11-10T17:23:00.016+13:00

Ok, so today we went to Cape Evans instead of Cape Royds, due to logistical reasons.. I'm learning that flexibility is the name of the game down here..

Cape Evans is the site of Capt Robert Falcon Scott's hut from his second expedition (the ship was the Terra Nova), from 1910-13.
This was the expedition from which he never returned- dying with two others in a tent on the Ross Ice Shelf, 11 miles from the next depot.
The hut was also used by the Ross Sea party of Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition (the one where his ship the Endurance got crushed in ice, and he managed to save his men by sailing to South Georgia). The cross in the photos is dedicated to two of the men in the Ross Sea party, who went missing when the sea ice that they were crossing blew out to sea (they were too impatient to wait for it to firm up).

We travelled out to Cape Evans by Hagglund, which was an experience. Hagglunds were designed for the Swedish military, and is amphibious (apparently it can go 4.7kmh in water, luckily we didn't try it out!). They're pretty cool vehicles I reckon, altho rather noisy, and because they're tracked- quite a rough ride..

At Cape Evans, we did the first lot of survey work of our trip (seeing as it's the whole point of our being here!). Around the hut we have marks which we resurvey each year to determine if the hut is moving due to ice buildup underneath it. These surveys have been taking place since about 1989.

On the way back, we stopped at an ice cave in the Erebus Ice Tongue- a glacier that protrudes about 10km into McMurdo Sound, and is usually surrounded by sea-ice. The cave was absolutely stunning- the blues were phenomenal.. Apparently the hoar frost is added to by peoples breath, so as more tourists go inside, the more intricate the patterns get.

I've got the remainder of my Antarctic Field Training tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday, so there won't be any posts tomorrow. Whatever will you all do with your day then? hehe..

Travelling on the sea-ice. Tent Island dead ahead.

Erebus in the background, part of the Cape Evans hut on the right (actually the latrines). The anchor is from Shackletons Ross Sea party's ship the Aurora, which was pulled out to sea when the sea ice in the bay was blown out in a storm. It left the party (who had only half unloaded at this stage) marooned in Antarctica with pretty much only the clothes on their backs, and knowing that Shackleton needed them to lay depots for when he crossed the continent. They managed to lay all of the depot's, even though Shackleton never even made it onto the continent on the other side.

Glen walking towards Wind Vane Hill, with the hut and Erebus in the background.

Looking towards the south. Hut Point Penninsua to the left. Tent Island and Inaccessible Island.

Looking westward across McMurdo Sound. A couple of icebergs to the left.

Scott's Cape Evans Hut, the Hagglund, and the Barne Glacier in the background. Later in the season, the hut is right on the beach!

The cross on Wind Vale Hill, with Erebus in the background.

The hut again.

Hagglund on the sea-ice with the Barne in the background (again).

A couple of icebergs locked into the sea-ice.

Hut & Erebus.

Side of the hut, with a pretty cool cornice (wind-swept overhanging snow) on the right.

Glen in front of the hut.

Another shot of the hut.

Loading up the Hagglund.

Line of flags. Royal Society Range across McMurdo Sound.

Going into the ice cave!

View from the entrance to the ice cave.

Glen entering the cave. We bum-slid in :-)

Inside the cave.

Roof of the cave.

Amazing blues!

Glen looking back into the cave.

Glen providing some scale :-)

Another view out of the entrance of the cave- getting ready to head back to Scott Base.

A Sunday Afternoon walk to McMurdo Station and Hut Point

2008-11-09T21:44:00.008+13:00

This afternoon we went for a walk over the hill to McMurdo Station and Hut Point (~3km each way). It was a really nice day, and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Still not too happy with the colours in some of my images.. Well, I was happy with them on one computer, but they're completely different on another one, so I'm not sure which is correct..

Glen near the top of the hill. Mt Terror in the background.

Snowcat! Broom Broom!!

A line of containers. Looking across McMurdo Sound to the Trans-Antarctic Mountains.

Glen taking some photos from near the Camp Area Datum origin. Observation Hill in the background.

Glen taking some more photos, this time with the trig, the containers and the mountains visible.

Ivan the Terra Bus! This is what we got into town on from the plane on our first day. It's huge!

Another large American vehicle. I don't know what it's used for, I just know its awesome! haha.

The Skua. This is a place where you can go and scavenge for stuff that people have left behind. So kinda like an op-shop I guess, but you don't pay anything..

Inside the Skua. It's named after a reasonably common bird down here which scavenges on whatever it can- often baby penguins.

A random piece of art in McMurdo. It's taller than I am.

Glen walking towards Discovery Hut at Hut Point.

Me- happy to finally be at the hut, after seeing so many photos, and reading about it in so many books.

This was Scott's first hut in the Antarctic, and is named after his ship, the Discovery. It was erected in 1902. It is the furthest south of the three historic huts on Ross Island, and was an Australian kitset design, more suited to the outback than the Antarctic (hence the big eaves).

Vince's Cross in the foreground, Discovery Hut to the left, Winter Quarters Bay in the medium-ground. McMurdo Station behind that, Crater Hill to the left, and Observation Hill to the right.

Winter Quarters Bay is where Discovery wintered over, and where the Americans bring their supply ships to unload, usually after a channel has been created by icebreakers.

Vince's Cross. Vince was on Scott's expedition, and died when he slid down a slope and into the water.

The road south. The early explorers would have aimed to the left of the hills on the horizon to go south.

Our Lady of the Snows Shrine. Dedicated to a construction driver from the US Navy- Richard T Williams, who died when his D-3 tractor broke through the sea-ice near Cape Royds on 'Operation Deepfreeze I' in 1956. The airfield that the ski-equipped planes fly to the south pole from is named after him- Willy's Field.

We then wandered back into town, and went to the McMurdo Shop, where I spent quite a bit on merchandise, although I did manage to finally get a copy of the USGS Ross Island and Vicinity 1:250,000 map.. After that we wandered back over the hill to SB, and dinner, yumyum.

Summary of Friday and Saturday

2008-11-09T12:34:00.001+13:00

Hi Guys,

I'm a couple of days behind in terms of blogging, other than photos. I had written a blog for Friday, but lost it with the slow internet connection here (or more precisely my lack of patience with the speed of it). So I'll try and combine Friday and Saturdays into one, and still try and keep it under a billion pages :-)

So on Friday morning we did a half day Antarctic Field Training. It was the refresher for Glen, as he did the full course last year, but for me it's the first half day of a 2 day course. We learnt about the contents of the survival bags which you use if u get into trouble down here- they contain a tent, sleeping bags, food, cookers etc. Hopefully we won't have to use them! As I'm the only first timer thats arrived at SB since Wednesday, I'm waiting till Tuesday/Wednesday to do the rest of this course. This involves doing cool stuff like sleeping outside..

Down here it's a 6 day working week, so Saturday morning saw us complete our Antarctic Driving Licence tests. It's a little different driving down here. Firstly, the vehicles are plugged into a 'hitching rail' which provides power for a heater to stop them all freezing up. Secondly, because there's so many more Americans here, we observe their driving rules- namely we drive on the righthand side of the road, which can take a little getting used to. You also can't use a handbrake as they have a nasty tendency to freeze up, so you have to put chocks under the wheel, and try not to park on a hill!! It's good though- gives us a bit more freedom to head over to Mactown if we need to.

In the afternoon we drove the 3km over to Mactown to pick up some survey gear that we need for Monday.. Had a good look around, took a heap of photos and found the shop.. It really is quite like an Alaskan mining town (not that i've been to an Alaskan mining town). I think it's quite full at the moment- there's been really bad weather at the pole, so they haven't been able to get people in there, so they stay at McMurdo. We randomly ran into a Kiwi who's on his way to the pole working for Raytheon (the company that runs the bases) as a builder. It'll be pretty intense working down there I can imagine!

So in between all these things, we've been getting our gear sorted, and working out a bit of a program. We've got to be quite flexible, and we work in with other events where we can. Looks like we're heading up to Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds tomorrow to do some levelling, so that should be a great trip. Hopefully I'll see my first Antarctic wildlife (other than Americans!).

The election coverage was playing in the bar last night, so that provided a bit of entertainment.. We can apparently pick up the satellite coverage that TNVZ provide for the Pacific islands, so thats good. I won't bring too many politics into the blog, but we'll just say that I'm happy with the result :-)

So yeah, hopefully I'll have some photos of Penguins for you in the next couple of days. Glen and I are off for a walk over to Mactown now to have a look at the shop, and to get some exercise seeing as the foods so ridiculously good here!!

Photos around McMurdo Station

2008-11-09T09:47:00.006+13:00

Ok, so on Saturday afternoon (6 day working week down here), Glen and I went across to McMurdo Station to pick up some survey equipment that we need for the work at Cape Royds tomorrow. We then went for a wander round Mactown to see the sights!

Road to Mactown- Observation Hill in the medium-distance, with Mt Discovery across the ice shelf.

McMurdo Travel Lodge. Not sure the history behind it, or why there's an ambulance parked outside...

A line of containers and some tanks with Ob Hill behind.

Some peeps on top on Ob Hill. The cross is to commemorate Scott's party who died on their way back from the pole.

The Chapel of the Snows at McMurdo Station.

Closer shot of the Chapel of the Snows

Stained glass window inside.

Some of the accomodation blocks which are used to house the approximately 1200 people who are on base in summer.

McMurdo Station sign, with Vince's Cross on Hut Point to the right, and the Trans-Antarctic Mountains in the background.

Hut Point, with Vince's Cross, and Scott's Discovery Hut. I think the rough ice is where the icebreakers made a channel to resupply the base last season.

Sign outside the McMurdo Hospital. The first penguin I've seen in Antarctica, other than the soft toy ones in the shop!

NSF building with flags outside..

Mt Discovery and the ice shelf through the gap.

There aren't many places in the world where you can have a functioning 24hr sundial!!

The other well known Scott Base sign, with SB in the background.

Our home for the next 5 weeks!

Some photos around base.

2008-11-09T09:28:00.006+13:00

Team,
Some photos from Saturday morning- generally out the front of SB.

I hope they're looking ok on your monitor, but I can't guarantee that. Turns out they're looking very different between my laptop and the computer in the lab here, and i'm not sure which is more correct. So your viewing experience may vary!

The SB sign with the lounge and kitchen in the background

Leanin' on the sign...

Brrrrr, its cold down here!

Stoked.

Erebus- that way.

South Pole- that way.

Once again- stoked.

SB sign, AA sign and flagpole, with Mt Discovery in the background.

Glen with Erebus in the background.

One of the big American vehicles driving up the hill towards Mactown.

Another SB AA sign, with Erebus in the background.

Glen at the back door to Scott Base.

Some photos from last night...

2008-11-07T17:16:00.003+13:00

Last night, being Thursday, was American Night at Scott Base. This is the only chance the Americans get to come to SB without an invitation, and they come and drink Speights and buy stuff from the shop.
So these are some shots from the front door of Scott Base.

Which way home? An American following the poled route on the sea ice back to Mactown.

The pressure ridges with Black Island in the background. Access to the pressure ridges is restricted to Kiwi's..

Black Island, pressure ridges, and the Scott Base sign.

Line of flags, with the mainland in the background. American still walking.

Willy's Field airfield. This is where the LC-130 Hurks (hehe) leave for the South Pole.

One more thing...

2008-11-06T20:17:00.003+13:00

Just quickly, I forgot to mention that Glen and I exercised one of our democratic rights this afternoon, and cast our votes for the NZ General Election at Scott Base. It was pretty cool, although there wasn't a booth per say (they just left us in a room), and we didn't have an Antarctic view out the window. But the form had a box to tick which said: "I am in the Ross Dependancy"! I thought it was of note anyway...

First full day here..

2008-11-06T19:37:00.004+13:00

Team,
I'll keep it short today, as I've posted those photos from yesterday, and well, yesterdays post was pretty bloody long. If you managed to get through all of it, congrats!

It's been a reasonably quiet day today- kinda getting settled in, and doing miscellaneous stuff.. Started with a field safety briefing (well, after breakfast)- which went through a lot of stuff about how to keep safe down here. Included the usual- frostbite/hypothermia/dehydration stuff- the three big risks down here really. The thing that stuck in my mind most was seeing photos of frostbite again- nasty. Going to make sure I stay away from that stuff!! They also showed us a couple of short movies about staying safe round helo's, and our responsibilities in the Dry Valley's, as they're a specially managed area. Basically it's around taking nothing but photos, and leaving as little footprint as u can. I'm not sure if they mean that we've gotta walk on our tiptoes or not... ha ha ha... Tough crowd.

Anyway, then Glen and I went and got our gear that we leave here over winter out of storage. This was the first time I'd really been out in my full gears. There was still about -16°C with a 20 knot wind, so the breeze was definately noticable on exposed skin. But out of the wind it wasn't really that cold at all. That said, I'm still getting used to the layering system, and how much you need to wear for what task and in what combination. One of the problems down here is that you've got to minimise sweating as it freezes and makes you a lot colder. So you need to wear enough clothes to keep you warm (esp when standing still and in the wind), but you don't want to overdo it, or you'll sweat too much.. It's going to take a bit of getting used to, especially seeing as I get overheated walking to work in Wellington!
I think that beign down here really makes you more aware of the conditions, probably to the point of being very overcautious (you don't want to be the guy that gets sent home cos of frostbite). For instance, out in the wind today, it didn't feel that bad, and often when tramping or whatever I've probably encountered worse conditions, but you just don't want to take the chance..

Then we just sorted out some of our GPS gear- making sure its ready to go. And my bag arrived, so I had a play with the photos and stuff before dinner. I've also been experimenting with some time-lapse video out the windows, so we'll see how that goes..

Anyway, now I'm off to read a book in the lounge and look out at the brilliant landscape!
I didn't manage to take any photos today, so I'll try and get some around Scott Base tomorrow..

Photos from the trip down...

2008-11-06T19:18:00.005+13:00

Getting the briefing before getting on the plane..

View from my seat...

Looking toward the back of the plane. You can see some of the cargo behind us.

Looking towards the front of the plane.. Steps up to the cockpit- we didn't get to go up there :-(

First photo on the ice just after getting off the plane.

Glen posing in front of the plane. Doesn't our kit look better than the americans?!?

First glimpse of Mount Erebus! Can't quite see the smoke plume in this photo..

Walking towards our ride- Ivan the Terror Bus!

Glen and I inside the bus.. It was very full.

The Italians getting straight onto their plane to fly to Terra Nova Bay base.. Mt Discovery in the background- it rivals Erebus in terms of domination of your view down here.. The Italians are pretty well dressed- these cool one-piece jumpsuits.. Stylish.

I have arrived...

2008-11-05T20:13:00.001+13:00

Hi All,
Firstly, I've made it to the Ice- writing this from the Hatherton Lab
at Scott Base. However, I misplaced one of my bags (cos I'm an idiot!)
which has my download cable for my camera in it, so no photos on the
blog this evening. Don't worry- the bag has been located, but it's not
getting bought over from Mactown (the American base - McMurdo Station
- gotta use the lingo!) till tomorrow morning.

So yeah, got up bright and early and made our way to the Antarctic
passenger terminal. Then it was a case of hurry up and wait, as we got
processed, then had to wait for a while, then got shown a safety DVD
about the flight and the ice, and got on a bus, and waited some more,
then got on the plane, and waited a little more, before finally taking
off.. 5 hour flight in a noisy military plane was interesting.. I'm
glad I had my noise cancelling headphones! There were about 85 people
on the flight- about a dozen Italians on their way to Terra Nova Bay
Station, ~70 Americans going to Mactown and the South Pole station,
and then Glen and I, the only Kiwis! So we were all up the front of
the plane, and then there was a heap of cargo in the back.

It was a 5 hour flight down, and a ridiculously soft landing at
Pegasus Ice Runway. Usually they run a sea-ice runway closer to
Mactown, but apparently due to budget cuts, they're not using it this
year. We then caught Ivan the Terror Bus into Mactown, and jumped in a
taxi (seriously) to take us to Scott Base, before seeing someone in a
SB vehicle who agreed to bring us over.. It's been a gorgeous day down
there- about -15°C, with clear blue skies and hardly any wind,
although it's picking up now and blowing some snow around... But Mt
Discovery, and the Royal Society Range were sitting proud and clear
across McMurdo Sound.

So we arrived just in time for afternoon tea, which was great, haha..
We then had a bit of a basic briefing about the base, before Glen gave
me the full tour. We have a safety briefing tomorrow morning, and then
I'm supposed to be going for my Antarctic Field Training on Friday and
Saturday. This has been complicated, however, by the fact that it
would just be me on the course because there weren't any other kiwis
on the flight! (Glen only has to do a refresher). I could do it by
myself, one on one with the trainer, or I can wait till Monday and do
it with the guys that come in on Friday. The option I take will depend
on our program in the next week or so- you're not allowed to go in the
field until you've done the training.
Anyway, it's still pretty hard to believe I'm actually here!
Especially when the weather's been good, and I've been walking round
Scott Base in my GC polo shirt which I wore it on the plane (only some
of the readers will understand that part) and jeans.. It's the little
things that are making it more acceptable- looking at the view that
the webcam has helped a lot to orientate myself! I think that after
looking at maps and photos, and reading books about the place for so
many years, in some ways it's familiar, and it's just piecing together
all the bits. But at the same time I don't think that you can really
judge what it's going to be like, especially how fricken awesome it
is! And I know that my photos won't do it justice, because the only
way you can do justice to a place like this is by experiencing it..

Right, enough of this, I've gotta go put some string on my mukluks
(the extreme cold weather boots)..

Great to see Obama won- this year's all about change!! ;-)

Oh, and I've had my first beer at Scott Base- a Speights- they didn't
have Double Brown...

Update on the weather outside- it's -16.6°C with 25 knot winds, so
thats like -40°C with the windchill.. Good thing I'm inside where it's
t-shirt weather!

Oh, and to the person who commented that I looked "truly ridiculous"
in my extreme cold weather gear (you know who you are), I would say
that I'd rather be alive and silly looking than frozen and dead. Or as
Shackleton wrote to his wife when he turned back less than 100 miles
from the pole- "Better to be a live donkey than a dead lion!" Hahaha..

Good to go...

2008-11-04T22:25:00.005+13:00

Hi All,
Quick note, as it's getting on, and i've got an early start in the morning..
Got to Christchurch today, and got kitted out with all the gears. It was this that really made the trip a reality for me finally.. With all the layers on, I couple finally tell that it's really going to happen.
So yeah, I also got some pictures of the plane that we go down in, as i'm not sure if we'll get a chance in the morning. We go down in the C17 Globemaster- the big one with 4 jet engines. The other two smaller (prop) planes, the ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules, are the type of plane that fly from McMurdo to the South Pole station. Photos below.

I also took a page out of Jay's book when he went down last year, and took a series of photos with the different layers of gear on. This year is the first year that Earth Sea Sky are kitting out the whole of the NZ program. It's awesome gear, and makes me want all of it, even though most of its not available to the public. The softshell in particular has caught my attention, lol.. There's also Cactus Climbing gear bags, which is cool. Great to see AntarcticaNZ are supporting NZ made brands!!

Anyway, we get picked up at 6am, and all going to plan, fly out at 9am, for our 5 hour flight down. So i need to get to bed!

Journey has begun..

2008-11-02T17:58:00.003+13:00

A quick note now that I'm on my way..

I'm currently in Invercargill catching up with the family. Went to our holiday house at Athol in northern Southland today to do some work, painted a shed, and did a little bit of chainsawing.. We've got 4 acres there, and I call it our country estate!

Here's a couple of photos of the place:

So I'm off to Dunedin tomorrow with Dad, then up to Christchurch on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon is when it all really begins- we get kitted out with all our gear, and make sure we're all ready to go. Then, all going to plan and weather permitting, we fly down on Wednesday morning! So its not too far away at all..

A couple of Maps

2008-10-23T14:56:00.004+13:00

Just some maps to show where I'm going:

This one shows the relative distances compare to NZ and the south pole. Just as a comparison, when I went to Darwin a couple of weeks ago, it was 5300km direct from Wellington. I'm not sure if that means that Darwin's far or Antarctica's close!

So, Scott Base is situated on Ross Island, in the Ross Dependancy. Ross Island is where most of the early explorers to the region (the British ones at least) set up their bases. The Ross Ice Shelf (or the Barrier as it was once known) is about the size of France, and abuts the southeast side of Ross Island.

I've annotated some of the key places that we'll be going to...

Camera Gear

2008-10-22T13:41:00.001+13:00

Just thought I'd put a post about the camera gear I'm taking to the ice:

Digital SLR Body: Canon 450D / XSi - 12.2MP.
Lens (Wide): Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.
Lens (Telephoto): Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS.
Filters: Circular Polarising x1, Lens Protect x2.
Cable release for 450D.
Digital Point & Shoot: Olympus Mju Mini - 4MP.
Tripod: Velbon Ultra LUX i M (and second plate).
Camera Memory (SDHC Class 6): 2 x 8GB cards, 1 x 1GB card.
Camera Memory (xD): 1 x 256MB card.
Batteries: 2 for each camera.

Digital Video Camera: Sony Handycam HC42
Heaps of tapes for video camera.

External Hard Drive: Seagate FreeAgent Go 320GB
(running PortableApps with GIMP for image manipulation)

Shooting in RAW + JPEG, so that I can post-process the files once i
get back to NZ, but still edit the jpegs in all image processing
software if need be while i'm on the ice.
The RAW+JPEG combination means that each photo is 20MB, so an 8GB card
can take about 400 photos..

T Minus Two Weeks!

2008-10-22T12:50:00.001+13:00

Team,

Well, in (fingers crossed) exactly two weeks, I should be on a plane, winging my way to the frozen continent.. Our programme's been moved back a day, so now we're scheduled to go down on November 5, and come back December 10. This, of course, is subject to change depending on
the weather.

So yeah, I'm busy rushing round picking up all the things I think I need to take. My photo kit is pretty much complete now that I bought an external HDD, and an awesome new tripod.. I'll do another post later about the camera gear i'm taking if anyones interested..

It's all getting very close. Its crazy how when you finally get to go to a place that you've been obsessed with for such a large part of your life, you can't really believe its happening.

Anyway, I'll try and do a couple more posts over the next two weeks around my prep and gear etc..

If you're looking for other reading, I recommend the Antarctic Conservation Blog. They're the peeps that do the conservation of the historic huts etc:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/earth/antarctica/blog/

Also, check out the webcam from Scott Base, its updated every 5 minutes or so: http://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/education/2568 (I've attached an image from the webcam to this post to test the image posting on the blog)

And there's a page on the current weather down there here:
http://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/weather/SBweather/sbweather.html

Take THAT wisdom teeth!

2008-08-19T16:20:00.003+12:00

Good news, had my follow-up dental appointment, and I don't have to get my wisdom teeth out right away.. Will probably get them taken out next year sometime, once i've had time to save some $$..
So yeah, got my filling, and a piece of paper saying that i'm dentally fit, so the first hurdle's complete, whoop..

This trip's getting expensive..

2008-08-06T10:49:00.003+12:00

I've just been to the dentist, and he's recommending that I get a couple of my wisdom teeth out.. not cool! Its the risk of them flairing up down there, which is annoying. But I guess I just need to bite the bullet.. haha- cos its teeth, and i'm biting.. meh, tough crowd..

Why I'm going to Antarctica...

2008-08-05T22:17:00.003+12:00

I guess the first thing I should deal with in this blog is how I'm getting to go to Antarctica..

Well, I'm lucky enough to work for Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), doing geospatial work- predominantly Geodetic related stuff. As NZ has a territorial claim in the Antarctic (the Ross Dependency), LINZ plays an active role in the surveying, mapping, and charting of this area. The field work that we do only covers the surveying and mapping parts, altho I did do some work for the charts when I was in the hydro area :-)

So, we send down a couple of people each year to complete survey work in the Ross Sea area. One of our key activities is to maintain the Ross Sea Region Geodetic Datum.. To do this we complete GPS surveys, install new continuously operating GPS receivers (we currently have 3 down there), and remove old survey beacons. These survey beacons aren't needed anymore, and can become environmental hazards as they are large metal drums, stacked two or three high, and filled with rocks.

We also calibrate the two NZ tide gauges- one at Scott Base, and one at Cape Roberts. This enables the values from the gauges to be combined year on year, so that long term sea-level changes can be determined..

Another job we undertake is the monitoring of the historic huts at Cape Royds and Cape Evans. these were built by Shackleton and Scott respectively, and are now being restored by the Antarctic Heritage Trust. So we monitor them to determine if they're rising or falling from ice buildup and melting.. Pretty interesting stuff..

Obviously a lot of science takes place in Antarctica, and something that really helps the scientists is accurate mapping data so that they know where they're doing their science! So I've been working on a project to do some new mapping in the Darwin-Hatherton Glacier region. This is to support the Latitudinal Gradient Project which is currently in that area. As part of this mapping project, we need to survey some control points to tie the mapping data to its real-world position, so we get to chopper round the place surveying rocks that we can identify in the images! Tough life eh..

And finally, there are a lot of odds & ends survey tasks around the base that we complete.. For instance, last season, the guys did some work for the new wind turbines that are to be installed so that Scott Base and McMurdo Station decrease their reliance on oil and gas..

So yeah, a bit of a roundup on what we do down there.. No doubt I'll go into more detail about everything when I'm actually down there..

First post

2008-08-05T13:33:00.000+12:00

First post to make sure all's well..

So at the moment we're scheduled to fly down from Christchurch on November 4th, returning on December 9. This is obviously weather dependant, and could also change depending on how our workload goes..

I've been working on my photo-process for when I'm down at Scott Base- what I do with them before posting online.. Looking to use Picasa, as it can deal with my Canon 450D's RAW files.. And then I can post them to here, yay! Then I'll use photoshop once I get home to do the proper editing..

I've got the first of my medical tests tomorrow- going to the dentist. The cold's pretty tough on teeth, so you need to be sure that u won't have any problems..

Still gotta get a full medical, and do a first aid course- time's flying.. Only 3 months till I go down!! Crazy..