Never Gets Old

The southbound trip from Christchurch is one that is both a combination of excitement and "been there, done that". I have tried always maintain the same sense of wonder and a feeling of being fortunate on every trip. There is no doubt that those feelings and emotions are not as strong as they were on the early trips, or my WinFly trip from two years ago. However, I still hope that I don't lose sight of the reality that I am traveling to Antarctica and when I get off the plane this place is unlike most everywhere else on Earth. I noticed on this southbound trip that not a lot of people were taking photos. Meanwhile, I was still trying to take photos as I've always done. Unfortunately,  many of the photos look almost the exact same as last year and I'm confident they are not that different from previous years as well.

Waiting in line to check-in at the Antarctic Passenger Terminal in Christchurch.

The day starts with a 4:30 AM wake-up in order to pack and be ready for a 5:15 AM shuttle to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) and Antarctic Passenger Terminal (APT), which are located next to the Christchurch International Airport. Once arriving at the CDC, you switch into the required cold weather gear for the flight to Antarctica, as well as do the final packing and preparations to check-in for the flight. All non carry-on luggage is checked-in starting at 6:00 AM. The baggage goes through a security screening process similar to that of a commercial flight and then we have about an hour before we need to return to the APT. That gives us a chance to walk to a local coffee shop or store for breakfast. We return to the APT by 7:30 for another video introducing us to Antarctica and another briefing. From there it is through one last security screening, including removing laptops from the carry on, and then loading a bus to take us onto the tarmac and to the military cargo plane. For this flight we had a C-17, which is about as nice as it gets for a military cargo flight. There are a few flights each year for the US Antarctic Program that use an Airbus or a Boeing 757 but I have yet to have one of those flights. We get off the bus, grabbed a bag lunch, and then boarded the plane for our southbound flight. The flight on Monday had 71 passengers and about 2/3 of the middle of the plane was filled with cargo.

One of the benefits of the C-17 is that it is much faster than the C-130 cargo plane. The flight from Christchurch to Phoenix Airfield took us 5 hours and 10 minutes on Monday. There is not too much to be done during the flight as it is fairly loud. Everybody has either ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones throughout the flight. There is room to stretch out and walk around and that is done frequently. The flight on Monday took off a few minutes early and landed at a little after 2:00 PM, McMurdo time. Because of the close proximity and dependence of the US Antarctic Program on Christchurch, New Zealand, the USAP operates on New Zealand time. With daylight savings this past weekend that means it is plus one day and minus 4 hours, or plus 20 hours, from Colorado time.

Getting off of the airplane is always one of the highlights in going to Antarctica. For this flight we landed with somewhat low cloud ceilings and we could not see as far as is normal when landing. The flight landed at Phoenix Airfield, which is about 15 miles from McMurdo Station. Everybody loaded into a passenger vehicle called the Cress. The Cress is not made for speed and it took an hour to travel from Phoenix Airfield into McMurdo Station where we were greeted by friends when we got off of the Cress and then the arrival briefing, which is yet one of many in the series of trainings and briefings.