Photos around McMurdo Station

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.

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...

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...

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..

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...

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...

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...

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..

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

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

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!

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