More pictures

We had a penguin wander up near the runway today. They have no land based predators so they have no fear of man. This little guy was letting us walk right up to him. He was actually very calm, just sitting there looking at us and town. This is an adelie, emperors should come later, they stand about waist high. It was about -15F out but the dry air makes it pretty manageable as long as the wind stays down.

The day before that I volunteered to be a part of a crew to maintain a couple of the trails near town. For my efforts I got a trail marker that they don't sell, so its kind of a neat thing to have. I don't have a picture of it but here I am looking busy. (Grey fleece).

Above is town fro observation hill. As the season has gotten going I've had more free time. There is not a terrible amount to do in town besides read and watch movies, during the day anyway, so I've been out doing some walking as much as I can. Below is the back side of ob hill facing the permanent ice shelf. Scott base, run by the Kiwi's, is in the center.

Roll cage mary. Most of the tops of hill around town have some sort of monument or cross. This particular version of Mary has its own roll cage. Ob hill in background

The black dot is a seal. He just layed there, pretty boring.

Each picture takes about 5 minutes to load so Im going to take a break for now. I have more to put up so check in tomarow night. We have reasonably fast internet here but the problem is everyone have to send and recieve through the same pipe line so it can get slow some times. Right now its getting to be dinner time so the connection bogs way down as folks get off work. I've been on a rotating three 12 hour shift, two day off schedule. Most of the folks here work six nine or ten hour days with Sunday off.

Around town

Ivan the Terra bus

Mount Erebus, the resident active volcano. It stands about 13,000 feet and is about 30 miles away Me standing out in front of Erebus. The ice below me is seasonal sea ice. In a couple months this will be open water.
For sea ice school we rode out in a Haglund. It's a cool little vehicle. Both the front and rear are powered. It has a bilge pump and an escape hatch in the top so if you fall through the sea ice the vehicle will float and you can get out of the top.

At this point the computer decided to stop me from uploading anymore pictures so I'll try again later on. I got myself signed up for snow school, so in a couple weeks I get to do a 2 day camping trip. Fun stuff

Pictures!

This is the view from my hotel in Christ Church.

More Christ Church.Sumner Beach

On the way back from Sumner beach I ran into this odd statue. 3 big naked guys head butting a fourth naked guy in the butt. The head buttee had a very agonizing look on his face.

Ice Flows

This is the view out of one of the small windows in the C-17 we took down. This was about 4 hours into the flight as we got over Ross Island.

Me on the way down Inside the C-17 looking forward
Inside the C-17 looking aft
Arrival in McMurdo

View from my dorm room


Today and yesterday the weather got to be a little more like Antarctic. -25 out but with 30 kt winds the wind chill got to be more like -50F. I have two roomates and the living is alot like a college dorm except the average age in more like 35. The food is also great, made by professional chefs, so I haven't had a bad meal yet. Tomarrow is a normal work day but Saturday is sea ice training. I get to take a ride several miles out onto the sea ice and do a mini survival training for a day. It's possible I might get to do 'happy camper school' where you actually over night out on the ice shelf.

Longer stay in CHC

No news on my bags, still living with what I had in my carry on. Good news though, the airplane we were supposed to take down to the ice broke and the back up is not here so we are in Christ Church until at least tomorrow and maybe the next day. I tried on all my cold weather gear today. Afterwards I rode the bus out to Sumner and walked the beach a while. I will put up some pictures as soon as I can get to a computer that I'm allowed to hook my camera up to. Tomorrow I'm not sure what my plans are. The weather might be a bit cool and rainy here. I looked at surfing here but the waves are nothing spectacular and the water is quite cold. I may rent a motorcycle and head over the mountains just a couple hours away. The weather is supposed to be dry there. The bikes here are cheap to rent, just about $60NZ per day for a high end motorcycle.

In New Zealand

Well, I made it safe to New Zealand but my bag is still out wandering the south Pacific. Raytheon decided to change my travel itinerary without letting me know so I went one place and my bag another. I'm hoping my bag made it to Auckland, thats what the airline thinks happened. I hope it shows up. Im off to wander around Christ Church.