Heading South for the Winter

Q. Who heads south for the winter?

a. all birds

b. migratory birds

c. Antarctic scientists working during the austral summer

d. trees

e. both b and c

Almost there!!!! I’ve flown for roughly 20 hours, and it’s taken me two days, but I’m finally in Christchurch, New Zealand. My journey has been long, but luckily not very lonely. I met a bunch of other Antarctic-bound scientists in L.A., which was great. The people I met are part of a meteorite research group, composed of a collection of people (most of whom had never met each other before) with different backgrounds (from geologists to astronauts!) We were all given hotel accommodations around Christchurch, and we all had appointment times at the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) at the same time, so I just tagged along with my fellow adventurers. 

Christchurch is beautiful….and small. New Zealand has more sheep than people! Just like there are more penguins than people on Antarctica!

 

This picture was taken on a hike I took up Bridle Path (just outside of the city).

So the main reason why we are in Christchurch is because the CDC is located here, and we all need to obtain our Extreme Cold Weather gear (ECW) BEFORE heading to the Ice. So, we all went to the CDC and got fitted. That was a process! We received 2 orange bags filled with gear which we had to go through and try on. There were 6 pairs of wool socks, 5 different types of gloves (1 pair of wool mittens, 1 pair of leather mittens, 1 pair of wind-proof down mittens, 1 pair of leather work gloves, and 2 pairs of liner gloves to wear inside the other gloves), 3 different types of hats (1 fleece hat, 1 balaclava, 1 wind hat), 4 different bottom layers (1 pair of light thermal underwear, 1 pair of midweight fleece pants, 1 pair of heavyweight fleece pants, 1 pair of wind pants), 5 different top layers (1 light thermal top, 1 midweight fleece top, 1 heavy fleece jacket, 1 expedition jacket known as ‘Little Red,’ 1 red parka known as ‘Big Red.’), goggles, a neck gaiter, and heavy duty FDX boots. We had to try on every piece of gear to make sure it fit because getting extra gear is tough out on the ice - they don’t have such a well-stocked CDC on Antarctica. If you want to know more about the gear I was issued, check out the entry ‘Bundling Up!’

So here I am, ready to try on everything.

 

And, here I am, sweating profusely, in all my gear.

Once all the gear was checked out, we watched a short film about what to expect in terms of preparing for heading to the Ice, and then we got our flight details! Looks like I’m going to Antarctica TOMORROW!!! If the weather is ok and there aren’t any other mishaps, I’ll be heading out to Antarctica on the next military plane. There is a chance we might ‘boomerang,’ our flight will have to return to Christchurch, if there’s poor weather, but hopefully we won’t have to. The record number of boomerangs is 7!! Boomerangs aren’t very common, but it is not unheard of because of the very unpredictable weather around the Ice. I really hope we make it the first time around!