Still in Christchurch

On Sunday, I stopped by the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to pick up my ECW gear. I tried each and every piece of clothing to ensure a proper fit. The last thing I wanted was a clothing malfunction at -50 F.
While trying on some of my expedition weight long underwear, this woman poke her head into the Men’s changing room and says, Anyone going to South Pole, come meet me in the office. Since I’m heading to the Pole, I go see what she wants. She tells me she is here to hand out our drugs. I say I don’t need any drugs but thanks. She says to take them just in case. It turns out that she was giving everyone acetazolamide which is used to combat altitude sickness. So, I take the bottle thinking it may be useful the next time I go to Nepal or something, I mean, big deal, South Pole is around 9000 feet and I live at 7000 feet. Well, it turns out that despite being 9000 feet, barometrically, it fluctuates anywhere between 9000 and 12000 feet as a result of the extreme cold. Think of it like a low pressure system when a storm is coming in. Pole has an extremely low pressure system simply due to the colder temperatures. I figured if it was around, 12000 feet, the altitude at which I start feeling altitude effects, I may need the pills since you cant really “descend”, the number one cure for altitude sickness.




After successfully checking out all my ECW gear, I was told to report back to the CDC the following morning at 0630 for my “Ice Flight”, formerly known as the “hurt flight” because it is so painful. However, this year, the bulk of the Ice Flights are conducted by a new behemoth of a cargo plane, the C-17 Globelifter. Needless to say, with all the cargo and limited number of passengers or PAX as they are called, the flight to Mcmurdo this will be the easiest and most comfortable flight most people have taken to the Ice all year. To pass the time in Christchurch, I strolled around the city and tried to get a few video shots to document the trip. With the bulk of USAP folks already on the Ice, Christchurch was a little quiet.

Just arrived in Christchurch

Well, I feel like I just spent twenty hours on a plane.... probably because I just have. Since It is only about 10:30 AM in Christchurch, my hotel room is not yet ready so I thought I would take a walk. Lo and behold, I find myself at an internet cafe. So far, the trip has gone relatively smooth, considering that I spent most of the day prior to leaving for the airport suffering on the couch from my sinus infection. However, Dr. Carson finally came through and had antibiotics waiting for me at the pharmacy which we picked up on the way out. Feeling much better now. Shure is nice to have a Dr. Patient relationship when your in a pinch like that.

The flight from Denver to LA was great and uneventful, I had about a three hour layover in LA where I watched the Matrix (again) on my laptop while I waited. I believe the plane from LA to Aukland was a 747 jumbojet and it actually take a whole hour to board. Around 11 PM, I set my clock back six hours so I would start thinking in New Zealand time which seems to be working, I did get a few exceedingly uncomfortable hours of sleep on the plane. For some reason, there was some sort of metal box mounted under the seat in front of me. I believe it controlled the video systems in my row but then who knows, the point is that I could only put one foot under the seat at a time. As a result, I spent the entire night on the plan shifting from one uncomfortable position to the next and now the entire night is simply one uncomfortable blur. However, I did get three movies in to take my mind off the pain. War of the Worlds, what can I say, it was cool. Fantastic Four, Dumb! .. and the First half of "Lords of Dogtown", pretty interesting given that I was something of a skater when I was a kid and these in the movie were well known to me, in name that is.

Since I had a bunch of expensive company wireless ethernet bridges, food in my bags, had hiking boots and had visited a farm recently (with those same hiking boots), customs in Aukland pretty much took forever and I thought I was going to miss my connecting flight to Christchurch. When I finally got out of customs, I literally ran to the domestic terminal, typically a 15 minute walk according to the signs along the blue and white line rout to the terminal, which took me about 4 minutes. Felt great after sitting on my bum for the last 20 hours. However, it turned out that I as a whole hour early so I sat and sweated in the cafe nursing a cup of Joe for an hour.

So anyway, after a quick flight to christchurch, meeting with RPSC travel, here I am at an Internet cafe in Cathedral Square in downtown Christchurch. Tomorrow, I have to check in at the Clothing Distribution Center at the Antarctic Center to pickup my Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear and get ready for my flight to the ice the following day. At this rate, I should be in Mcmurdo on the 31st and on the waiting list for a flight to the South Pole. Last I heard, there were several flights to Pole backed up and sitting in Mcmurdo.