DC on The Ice: Birthday Celebrations

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!