First Post

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay, but it's been really busy down here at McMurdo...

After spending a few days in Christchurch, NZ... I return to my hotel room to find a note stuffed under the door that tells me to report to the International Antarctic Center at 0600 the next day. As I rise that morning before the sun I realize that I will not see nighttime for a very long time. In the morning I board a shuttle at 0515 and head over to the Clothing Distribution Center (aka the CDC), where I get my extreme cold weather (ECW) gear and check in for the flight. All the passangers and their luggage are weighed and checked in. We are then given an hour to get breakfast in the visitors center and then have to watch a video about life in Antarctica.

After the briefing, we go through a brief security screen and are put on buses driven by uniformed USAF personnel. We are driven over to a C17, which is one of the largest aircraft I've ever seen, and certainly the largest I've ever been on. We board the plane, which has a few normal aircraft seats in the middle along with many jump seats along the side, pallets of luggage (our luggage), and a huge tank of liquid helium riding along with us. We take off from Christchurch International Airport and head south for McMurdo.

The flight is amazingly smooth and lasts about 5 hours. We are given an opportunity to purchase souvenours and a tour of the flight deck. At around 2pm we land on the Ice Runway at McMurdo Station where we get off the plane onto a large wheeled vehicle known as a "delta". It drives us from the airfield to McMurdo station where we are given yet another briefing. After this we get the keys to our rooms and can finally relax for a little bit... I take my luggage to my room and then go out for a walk around town in all my cold weather gear...

More to follow soon...