I don't know what Old Zealand was like, but New Zealand seemed very nice.
To fly down to the station at McMurdo in Antarctica you had to be processed
through the USAP office in Christchurch, New Zealand, which was located at
the International Antarctic Centre [sic :]. You got from where ever you lived
to New Zealand (and hopefully back again) on regular commercial airliners.
From Christchurch to Antarctica you had to fly on a military aircraft. Unwinding
for a couple of days, whether you are going to or coming from the ice isn't
a bad idea. In addition, everyone there has such a cute accent.
Above is a picture of Christchurch in the direction of the ocean from the balcony of my 7th floor bed and breakfast apartment. Normally you don't get an apartment at a B and B, especially one on the 7th floor, but Christchurch was full of people trying to get down to Antarctica. Flights had been cancelled for several days because of the weather in McMurdo, so the hotels in town were filling up, and I had to stay in an apartment across the street from the Croydon Bed and Breakfast which is the white building in the lower left hand corner.
The Christchurch Model Yacht Club (est. 1898) met on the weekends in Hagley
Park to race radio controlled sailboats. I didn't see any funny looking keels
on any of these boats when I was there, nor did I see any catamarans. I guess
they don't cheat when they are racing just amongst themselves and not trying
to steal the America's Cup. Them lousy Kiwis.
Christchurch has a huge botanic garden filled with enormous trees -- none of which are in the picture above.
It was early Spring down there in October, so there was a whole lot of bloomin' goin' on.
Above is the Curator's House Restaurant at the botanic garden. The weather was very nice during the couple of days that I was there.
There was a line of trolleys in Christchurch that made a large circle through the city's downtown area. They were for transportation, tours, and in the evening there was even a trolley car that was a moving restaurant.
Armagh Street at night.
The flight from Christchurch down to Antarctica is made on one of two types
of military cargo planes. The plane is either a C-130 Hercules, or a C-141
Starlifter (though the C-141's are due to be replaced by much larger C-17's
in the near future -- 2004: and have been.). They are usually operated by
an Air National Guard (ANG) unit. This time it was the New York Air National
Guard. The C-141 is a four engine jet, and the C-130 is a four engine turboprop
plane. Our group flew down, with 130 of our physically closest friends, on
a C-141. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of pictures of that event, but
in a nutshell just imagine a bunch of sardines dressed in red coats, black
pants, and fat boots stuffed into a can. It was somewhat uncomfortable. It
was cramped, and it was either too cold or too hot.
Since the weather in McMurdo that was holding all of us up in Christchurch
tended to get worse in the afternoons they wanted to try getting us down to
the continent as early in the day as possible. That meant sometime in the
morning...it's a five hour flight...you do the math. We had to be at the Antarctic
Centre to change into our cold weather clothing (we'd come in the day before
to get all of it issued to us and make sure that everything fit), pack away
and tag all of the stuff that we were going to be leaving behind in Christchurch,
go through a civilian-like airport security check of all the stuff we were
taking with us, be 'briefed' with some general information about what was
going to be happening, and wait for the plane and us to be loaded. We arrived
at the center at 2:00 am. We took off at about 5:30 am.
2018-03-05