The Long Journey

I have completed my trans-Pacific journey leading me to Antarctica. Most of my work will be based out of McMurdo Station, which is the largest U.S. base in Antarctica. McMurdo Station is located at the northwest corner of the Ross Ice Shelf, at approximately 78S. The best major city that is close to McMurdo Station is Christchurch, New Zealand. To get to Antarctica, most people in the U.S. Antarctic Program travel through Christchurch and I arrived into Christchurch late this afternoon. The flights from Denver to Christchurch were with commercial airlines (American / Qantas / Emirates). The flight from Christchurch to McMurdo will be a military cargo plane. To no surprise, it takes awhile to get to Antarctica.

My journey began on Wednesday afternoon as I left Denver at 5:00 PM. I had a 2 1/2 hour flight from Denver to Los Angelas (LAX) where I had a 3 1/2 hour layover. From LAX I departed on a 15 hour flight to Sydney, Australia. I had a 3 hour layover in Sydney leading to the last leg, a 3 hour flight to Christchurch. In the end, it took me a little over 27 hours to get to Christchurch from Denver. The good news is that as soon as I got into Christchurch I rented a car for a 3-day weekend around the South Island of New Zealand. My time will be spent vacationing and relaxing as I unwind from the craziness of the last few weeks in preparing to leave for two months. I will be returning to Christchurch Monday evening when I will resume my journey towards Antarctica.

I had an unexpected bonus on my flight to LAX. As I was doing some work near the gate in Denver, I heard my friend Justin talking on the phone. I turned around and it was Justin and his wife Krista. It turns out we were on the same flight from Denver to LAX. On top of that, their flight to Nepal (through Hong Kong) was departing at the gate next to my flight to Sydney. We were able to have dinner together at LAX and spend the layover together as their flight left about two hours after mine. It is helpful to have a friendly sendoff when going away for two months. The fact that it was an unexpected sendoff with friends at LAX was even better.

I hope you have a great weekend. My next update will not be until after I return to Christchurch after my long weekend touring around New Zealand.

Hanging out with my friends Krista and Justin at LAX before my flight to Sydney and their flight to Hong Kong (en route to Nepal).