Arrival in Antarctica

December 4, 2013
New Zealand, Antarctica

The Clothing Distribution Center welcomed us back to get all suited up for the flight.  When flying over Antarctica, you must be wearing all of your extreme cold weather gear.  We check into our own private terminal where we viewed more orientation videos while waiting for the plane to be ready.  There were 22 of us boarding the plane, all of whom were station personnel, scientists, or military personnel.   The plane was an LC-130.  If you are interested, you can read more about them here.

Our flight duration was 7.5 hours, with another 1.5 hours added to make a refueling stop in the southern tip of New  Zealand.  It is fairly common for flights to "boomerang," or return back to New Zealand, when the weather is not clear enough for landing on the Ross Ice Shelf.  The flight was very loud (we were required to wear earplugs the whole time) and the seats were not very comfortable (notice the webbing below) so I was very pleased that we did not boomerang.  

The flight carried our gear as well as fresh food.  The station residents can sometimes go months without fresh food, so the arrival of "freshies" is greatly appreciated.  

We had some amazing views of the ice as we flew over Antarctica.  The pilot let us enter the cockpit and the view that they had was amazing.  There were a few windows in the body of the plane from which I took these photos

Cracked ice shelf

A mountain peak through the ice sheet

Ice streams

Smooth landing

We arrived to Williams Field around 9pm and the drive to McMurdo took about an hour because the big vehicle (see monster to the right) that carried us was rather slow.  We passed Scott base, the home of the New Zealand Antarctic program, somewhat smaller than McMurdo but all buildings a cheerful green color.  At McMurdo station, we went right to the NSF chalet, where we were oriented further.  Due to the long day and the number of acronyms used, I unfortunately didn't retain much of that information.  We had a very late dinner and rolled into bed around midnight.

So excited to finally be here!