Travel to the Ice

Travel to Antarctica is a long trip, but much quicker when you fly. My 8th trip to the ice started with flights from Santa Barbara, to LA, to Auckland, NZ to Christchurch, NZ. Something on the order or 30 hours of travel brought me to one of my favorite cities.

Among my favorite parts is the botanical garden. This is the last time I will see plants and flowers for a few weeks (and for many it will be months. It is also Spring in New Zealand so the smells, sights, and plants are amazing.

After three days (or so) we board a plane operated by the United States Air Force. In this case it is a C-17. Flights to the Antarctic in the Ross Sea are shared among multiple countries including New Zealand, Australia, Italy, and the US. The C-17 is one of my favorites since it is the fastest so it only takes about 5 hours to fly to the ice. Every time is an adventure though - in this case the weather was too bad to land for two days. We learn this each morning at between 3:50 and 4 am and in many cases we will just get 2 hour pauses so we wake up every two hours from 3:30 until it either goes or we have a 24 hour pause.

The inside of the plane is not like a normal one but organized to get a bunch of people in it. Sometimes we fly with helicopters, or lots of gear. This time is was a lot of people to help get the station ready for science. It is many people's first time and excitement was high.

For this trip, not all was smooth. Upon take off we apparently hit some birds and we had to turn around, land and have the plane inspected prior to getting airborn again. There was no damage and the weather held so we were on our way!

This meant we first took off at 8 AM after a 4am wake up, and landed many an hour later (at about 5:30). Many of the seats are cargo netting. I got a seat with pads! It was really plush this year.

One of the things I love about Antarctica is the friends and colleageus, new and old. Here Alex and Steve make a serious pose - a rare look for two of the most joking and entertaining people around. They are also the diver supervisors who make my work possible and also, thanks to their personality, incredibly enjoyable. This is the wait to step outside to the balmy weather.

One of the main reasons we are here this year is to collaborate with New Zealand Scientist, Dr. Sarah Seabrook who works at NIWA Wellington. A colleague and friend for many years, it has been a long time since we have been in the field together. This is her stepping onto the ice. Notice the runway is just snow! Now the science can really begin.