Last Post

My last adventure to Antarctica is complete and so now is the blog on it. It definitely was an amazing experience that I feel very privileged to have been able to take part of. Thank you for following my blog; Antarctica is a place that I would love to take so many people, but I am grateful I can't as it would not be the same if it were more accessible. With that in mind, I tried to capture the experience as best I could. However, like so many other things in life, pictures and words can't really do it justice. If the opportunity ever presented itself, I would definitely go down again in a heartbeat and hope that at the very least, my experience there wouldn't deter you from doing the same.

My ride out of McMurdo. I was really surprised the C-17 landed, as the visibility was pretty poor with the falling snow. However, we did have the president of Raytheon Polar Services on our flight out, so perhaps they had a little extra incentive to land. The temperatures in McMurdo had been quite warm and one C-17 flight had actually cut a 6 inch deep 5000 foot long groove into the ice with its landing gear. Because of that, the flight out was at 5 in the morning to try to take advantage of the few degree difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures. The crew also had to go up and sweep off all the snow of the wings before take off.














I can think of few other countries that would be nicer to return to from Antarctica than New Zealand. This is a photo of the beach at Aramoana outside of Dunedin. Sheep were on the hills in the background but you can't really see them.














This is looking across the mouth of the harbor at Harrington Point where there is an Albatross colony.














This anchor snagged the fishing gear of generations of fisherman before being pulled out of the harbor in 1978 and presented to the city of Port Chalmers.














Looking out from Port Chalmers in the direction of Aramoana.















The memorial to Scott and his crew at Port Chalmers. Dunedin was the last place Scott stopped before setting off to Antarctica on his ill-fated quest to make it to the South Pole.