New Zealand

I've been back a few weeks now, but I've only just finally managed to get my pictures together from New Zealand. It was spectacular! New Zealand is one of the finest countries I've ever visited. We only had about two weeks to explore and we easily could've spent a year getting to know that country.

There's almost too much to describe, really you should just take a peruse through the album. But if you'd really like to know our itinerary, I'll do my best to break it down for you.

From 20091204-NewZealand

We started in Christchurch. I got there on December 2nd and Amy flew in to meet me a couple of days later. The Twisted Hop brewery was one of my favorite establishments, but really the botanical gardens were the highlight of the city.

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From Christchurch we caught a bus to Dunedin (south along the eastern coast of the south island) to go visit a friend of mine. We figured it would be good to start the trip visiting people rather than starting out on our own. Somehow my friend managed to concoct a double-rainbow for us shining off the patio of his home. We explored the Otago Peninsula a bit, visited a few breweries, and then we were on our way back to Christchurch a few nights later.

From 20091204-NewZealand

Once back in Christchurch we picked up our camper for the rest of the trip and started off toward the north end of the south island hoping for warmer climates and sandy beaches. We weren't disappointed, as the first stop we made was in Kaikoura - an absolutely beautiful beach not far from Christchurch.

From 20091204-NewZealand

We didn't stay in Kaikoura though, that day we were destined for Blenheim. We had heard Blenheim was the place to go for vineyards, and we were not disappointed. Every summer holiday should include a day of drunken bike riding from one winery to another.

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From Blenheim we were headed to Kaiteriteri for some beach time, but before we got there we did a nice little hike on the Kawa Track.

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Once at Kaiteriteri we had a fun time collecting shells and playing with starfish.

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From Kaiteriteri we headed off to the Golden Bay area which was more or less our destination for the trip. Our first day there we took a friend's advice and went to visit Wharariki beach. The surf is too wild for any kind of swimming here, and the spray in the air makes it a less than pleasant place to work on your sun tan, but nonetheless this is one of the most impressive beaches in the whole country.

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The next day we decided it was time to finally get inside Abel Tasman national park and see what the fuss was all about. We did a ten mile loop and saw more endless beautiful beaches.

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After you've seen one perfect golden beach with blue skies and overflowing with lush vegetation you've seen them all...

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But one day in Abel Tasman simply wasn't enough. The next day we decided to attack the park by boat. For a reasonable rate we got a double kayak for the day and paddled off to chase the seals around in the water and get to some of those beaches you can't reach by foot.

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Amy says being able to pilot a kayak together as a couple is a good relationship test. I'd say we did pretty well considering we left all of our fellow kayakers in the dust once we launched from the beach.

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It's probably safe to say that kayaking in Abel Tasman is one of the most fun things you can do in New Zealand.

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But at some point the trip had to come to an end. After kayaking we started the drive back to Christchurch stopping here and their for refreshment, but the trip was mostly finished after that and we spent our last few days relaxing and preparing for the 24-hour trip home.

I've left quite a lot out and there's so much we didn't get to see. We never got to the north island and we have a long list of places on the south island we wish we could've visited. Hopefully this post has given a rough idea of how wonderful our time there was.

Suppose we'll have to save all of the rest for our next New Zealand vacation!

Moving On

I'm writing this from a fabulous hotel in Christchurch. My time on the ice is over. What a long strange trip it's been!

Now it's time for a long awaited holiday in New Zealand. A sweet woman who's been graciously patient with me while I've been off frolicing with the penguins comes to meet me in Christchurch. We'll drive a campervan around and go kayaking, tour vineyards, see wildlife, swim in the ocean, and lie on the beach.

Does life get any better? I've never heard a sound so nice as the birds outside my window right now.

Discovery Hut

The sign pretty much says it all :

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As an aside, isn't "an historic monument" bad English? I mean a snake wouldn't make an hiss sound would it? Nor do you go skiing down an hill. But I digress...

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Discovery Hut, as the sign says, was constructed during Captain Robert Falcon Scott's first expedition to the Antarctic. Shackleton was with him on this voyage, though the story goes they didn't get along well. This expedition was not intended to reach the pole, but rather to explore the nearby terrain and perform various science. Unlike the hut at Cape Evans, constructed in 1911 for the Terra Nova expedition destined for the Pole, Discovery Hut was not meant for berthing. It was used as a storage area, an office, and a science laboratory. It was revisited many times later, so it is not clear which of the goods are from the original party and which were deposited later.

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One of the first things you notice when you step inside is the smell. It's probably the slowly decaying seal, penguin, and whale carcasses that does it. It's remarkably well preserved for century old dead meat, probably due to the lack of bacteria on the continent.

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Once you get over the smell, you'll notice various signs of hut life. There's pots and pans and various tools on the shelves.

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And no expedition would be complete without a tin of Morton's kippered herring.

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And of course all the biscuits the dogs & men could eat!

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It's a pretty cool little hut, an interesting artifact of historical times long gone, and a great place to take a walk to on a fine day at McMurdo.

Helo

Well it's my last week here and I finally managed to get on a helicopter. We've been grounded for the last two weeks due to bad weather and a lack of success competing with other groups waiting for flight time. Today our number came up.

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Our destination today would be a quaint little place called "Butcher Ridge". Much like Deverall Island, Butcher Ridge is one of UNAVCO's GPS sites located in the dry valleys. We had more or less the same list of maintenance activities planned for the day here as before, and in the morning the weather was looking good.

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About the time we reached our familiar friend, Mt. Discovery, the wind picked up to about 50 knots. On the ground this would be enough to knock your hat off and push you backward. In the air this is enough to put you on the ground. After a few minutes of trying to fight our way onward, our pilot announced that we'd better turn back.

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Despite the unfortunate news it was hard not to enjoy the scenery and just the fact that here we were flying around Antarctica in our own personal helicopter. The snow-capped mountains never get old.

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I kept finding myself staring at the unnatural shade of blue that permeated the ice below us. The patterns of rock & ice just don't look real. We also got a glimpse of open water on the horizon. It gets closer everyday.

All in all we were only out of the office for a few hours. As our pilot put it, "Better to be here wishing we had gone on, than to be there wishing we had turned back." Judging by the howling wind and the rolling clouds that dominated the rest of the day, I suspect he was right. I shudder to think that he's learned that bit of wisdom from personal experience.

Deverall Island

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Last week we had a beautiful day on Friday and we finally got a chance to get out of town for a while. Our destination was Deverall Island a few hundred miles south along the coast of the continent and our ride was a Twin Otter "fixed wing" aircraft. This was my first time flying in one of these, and let me tell you a ski landing on sea ice is a hair raising event. They're impressive vehicles though. We touched down with no trouble and even taxied over to within a few hundred yards of our site.

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Out here in the middle of nowhere a steel frame with a pile of batteries, antennas, wind generators, and solar panels sticks out like a sore thumb. It's a very elegant design though, and it's satisfying to think that we can deploy these things with nothing but a ring of satellites tying them back to the mainland and be able to continuously collect data. We spent about four hours monkeying with various parts that needed maintenance of some kind.

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On the way home we needed to make a quick stop for gas. No stations in sight, but we did find a pile of six fuel drums half buried in the snow. Fifteen minutes of shoveling and fifteen minutes of pumping later and we were gassed up and ready to go. The fuel cache site offered some splendid views of the surrounding rock & ice.

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As we got nearer to McMurdo we started seeing some familiar sites. Here's Mt. Discovery - yet another resident volcano. Doesn't the bluish tint in the sea ice look strange?

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Home sweet McMurdo! We got home just in time for dinner. Another fine day in Antarctica.

Castle Rock

Once again the weather cleared for us this week, so my colleague and I decided to go checkout Castle Rock up close.

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Unfortunately the Class 3 route to the summit is still closed, but we were still able to get some stunning views of the rock and Mt. Erebus off in the distance. The weather was clear enough that you could even see a small plume emanating from the top of the volcano.

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The full Castle Rock loop is about 7 miles and continues on passed the rock to Scott Base. From there you follow the road back to McMurdo. We decided just to do a quick run out to the rock and back.

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Along the way you pass a lot of "golf balls" which contain our satellite dishes and also "apples" which function as warming huts for hikers passing by. In our case the apples served as relief from the constant direct sun. It was hot!

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Coming back we had a nice view of Mt. Discovery off in the distance across the Ross Sea and lovely McMurdo station beckoning us home.

Observation "Ob" Hill

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A few days ago the weather was so nice we just had to take advantage. After dinner we decided to run up Ob Hill for a quick "night hike".

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Ob Hill juts out right from the center of town in McMurdo, so there's no need to checkout with the firehouse or be too worried about getting caught out in the weather. It probably takes 30 minutes to get to the top and on a clear day the view from up there is amazing. The proximity also makes it a great staging area for mock field sites.

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If the visibility is good you can see Mt. Erebus off in the distance, McMurdo's active volcano in residence, with Castle Rock in the foreground. Also nearby is Scott Base which is home to our Kiwi neighbors. There's a loop you can do as a day hike out to Castle Rock. Scott Base is normally closed to visitors except by invitation or if you're headed to the store, but on Thursdays it's "American Night" and McMurdo residents are welcome in the bar. Might be headed there tonight actually.

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This cross is an historic monument and preserved in accordance with the provisions of the antarctic treaty. It was erected in January, 1913 to commemorate Captain Scott and his party who lost their lives on the return journey from the south pole in March, 1912.