Happy Halloween!

There hasn't been much work as we are are still waiting on our cargo to show up. It seems they are having a hard time getting through the backlog of flights and it could be another week before all of our cargo gets here. I don't mind the short days, but it means we will have to work harder once the gear gets here.

I don't have any real Halloween plans. Apparently the Halloween party was on this past Saturday. Most of the people in McMurdo work 6 days a week, with Sunday off. Obviously a lot of people have to work different schedules because the base does run 24/7 but Saturday nights are the popular nights for many of the parties.

Here is a photo of the launch vehicle. There were no balloon flights last year due to the sequester, but some CSBF employees came down to swap the 3,000 pound transmission on "the Boss". It was parked on a berm which was 4-5 feet above the surrounding area, now you can see the berm and part of the the Boss are buried. It will mean more work for people to get it out so they can check it out and replace some of the tires.

The next few photos are from the ride back, which is fairly bumpy, so it makes getting good photos difficult. Here is some the equipment being prepped for the traverse to South Pole.

It is a bit a weird to be reminded of how much snow accumulates in parts of Antarctica. Here you can see how the older flags are getting buried by the rising level of the snow.

I went to Scott Base, the kiwi base, last night for American night. The base is open to Americans only by invite or on American night. I forgot to bring my camera, but noticed there were seals out on the ice. Again this is with a bit of zoom, in a bumpy vehicle, so I hope to get better shots at another time. The skuas haven't made it this far south yet, so the seals are the only wildlife I have seen on this trip.

Here you can see seals hauled out. The line running across the top of the shot represents the edge of the open water last year. The past couple years have seen a lot of open water around McMurdo and Scott base. I'm hoping it opens up again as whales and orcas come in. Last season large pods of orcas were seen rubbing against the seafloor in pretty much that exact spot.

In this photo you can see LDB, where I work, on the horizon in the middle of the photo. It is about two and a half miles further out this year than two years ago. The ice sheet moves about 300 feet a year in that area, so they wanted to return it to it's original location to see if they get better weather for launching. You can also see the line in the ice/snow representing the edge of the open water running almost parallel to the horizon.

Christchurch, Castle Hill, and the Ice Flight

So I will probably try to do things a little bit differently this trip. I am thinking of posting more of my photos online, but on another website. I will try to write a blog when I have an opportunity. I have found that it takes a while to get the formatting of the blog somewhat correct and it is much easier to just make a photo album elsewhere. My photos will be available at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/114463775@N04/sets/72157646697801283/
Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

I made it through Christchurch. We arrived early Saturday morning, and I flew out early Tuesday morning. It was interesting being back. I had a real hard time getting my bearings as most of the buildings that were once there are no longer. It is a good thing to have much of the downtown area torn down as it represents progress, but I found it depressing to realize how much was gone.

I did some walking around town, went to the botanic gardens, which are as always a pleasure, and traveled with some coworkers.

I will probably repeat myself a bit from earlier trips, but I may also not explain things clearly as I have a hard time keeping track of what I've told people. Please don't hesitate to ask questions.

Here is a photo of the Anglican cathedral from one of my earlier trips.

Here is what it looked like after the earthquakes.

Here is what it looks like today. From my understanding there is disagreement about the fate the cathedral. Some, including the bishop, want it to be torn down, others want to try to restore it. 

Here is another building after one of the early quakes.

Here it is from a later trip.

Here it is from this trip.








Here is a statue of Scott made by his widow. I always found it to be a very moving statue as it was carved by his widow.

Here is what remains. I do not know the fate of the statue itself and hope that maybe it was taken down to preserve it at some point.

One of the positive things to come out of the destruction was the addition of a lot more artwork around the city. Here is a mural on the side of the Canterbury Museum showing a moa skeleton and kiwi.

This time the temporary exhibit included parts of a former station that served as a refueling stop for planes traveling between New Zealand and McMurdo.

Here is some artwork from that base.

They also had an exhibit showing off some of the different bases that are proposed, under construction, and recently constructed. This is one, in an iceberg, seemed to be under construction but I have a hard time believing it.

In addition to the murals, they have built new play areas, dance floors with speakers, and other art installations where buildings once stood.

This is the new and temporary Christchurch cathedral. It is made out of cardboard tubes, plastic panels and shipping containers.

 They had some neat vehicles around town.

Apparently there was a mustang convention going on with over 200 mustangs in the area.

Here is some more artwork. My hotel is the tall building on the left. It is a new building an apparently the tallest in Christchurch,

Some more artwork from near my hotel

The view from my hotel room. The roof of the cardboard cathedral is visible just above the trees in the center right of the hotel.

Some locals playing a game of fireball. 

 I traveled with some coworkers to an underground river near Castle Hill in New Zealand. Most of my coworkers walked through the river, I chose not too as I didn't really bring along any gear for it, but they seemed to have a good time.

We stopped by Castle Hill and did some walking around the impressive boulders. 

They have been having a lot of bad weather in McMurdo and many people were delayed in Christchurch 3-7 days. We ended up taking a night flight south as it was the second flight of the day. It meant I got to see my last sunrise for a while from the plane.

 The two big shipping containers actually contain our equipment. It should have been on the ice earlier, but they haven't had flights available.

You can see a little bit of the color from the sunrise in this photo as well as the sea ice below.

Flying over the continent is always impressive.

 Here you can see some icebergs trapped in the sea ice.

 Our C-17.

 Apparently the NSF uses this aircraft to certify the runways. It was a strange site.

 Here you can see some of the air crews digging their plane out.

This is from the ride back to McMurdo from Pegasus, the ice runway.

A view of Mount Erebus and Mount Terror as we ride towards McMurdo. You can see the waves in the ice sheet in the middle of the photo as the ice sheet hits Ross Island on the left. Mount Erebus, Mount Terror, and McMurdo are all on Ross Island.

The wind turbines that were shipped down during my first trip to Antarctica.