LA AIRPORT – Wednesday 21 november

Out at Station two today. We had a busy runway. People were calling it a “real airport” over the portable radios. At one point we had 10 planes on the apron.

6 x C-130
1 x C-17
2 x Twin otter
1 x Bassler

During the afternoon we took a Nodwell out for training. We ran a simulated aircraft fire drill. We ran the line off the truck and started the fire package. Good fun.

CAPE EVANS AGAIN - Tuesday 20 november

Last minute I got called up to see if I’d mind driving another delta trip out to Scott’s hut. A driver had pulled out and the trip was likely to get cancelled. I know how much people absolutely love this trip, and for some it’s their one and only time out of McMurdo. I’ve been told that people line up by the recreation board an hour before the trip list gets put up on the board, just so they can secure themselves a seat.

“Yeah for sure” I replied.

Unfortunately I turned up at 6pm though to find the trip had now been cancelled due to the weather. What a shame. I returned to my room to watch a movie in my cave.

GUITAR 101 - Monday 19 november

Just the usual jazz today. Another day at station one. I’m riding Tanker today. That’s always fun.

We attacked a 50 gallon drum today with new halmatro rescue cutting gear, and moved around 100 containers of foam to a building on site.

Tonight I had my first guitar lesson with a friend Ed. He’s a guitar guru. Ed’s goal is to become a composer. Once off the ice he’ll be applying to music schools. The lesson he is giving me is of benefit to us both. As a prerequisite Ed needs to have lesson plans and hours of teaching under his belt. Ed’s a firefighter here on the opposite shift to me.

SCOTT LIKES TARANAKI BUTTER - Sunday 18 november

Another trip driving a crew out to Cape Evans today. The delta is fully loaded with smiling faces; one of them is my good friend Dave. It’s his birthday today. All the passengers sang happy birthday to him and I gave him a card I’d made. “Happy Birthday buddy”

We didn’t see as much wildlife today as Friday. Maybe Sunday is their day of rest too.

I took some video inside Scott’s hut today, along with more photos. Wondering around I discovered a storage area that I hadn’t seen before. Large boxes were pilled up against the side of the hut. I took a closer look. I got a surprise as I held my flashlight up into the dark. These were butter boxes….from Taranaki!
Let the record state, Scott liked his butter from New Plymouth.

Click went the shutter. This is a must see for my Taranaki bred family back home.

YEAH TO THE IRD FOLK - Saturday 17 november

Yippee. I got mail. Actually I got FAN mail. Even better.

I received a lovely card signed by Jennie’s colleagues, saying how much they love reading my blog. That made my day. Thanks for reading and I’m super stoked you’re enjoying it.

Out at station two today. Today we are doing driver training on a machine called a Nodwell. This is a track vehicle, it’s steering is two levers instead of a steering wheel. You pull down on the left lever to turn left and right for right. Now I thought driving on the right hand side of the road was confusing! She’s a lot of fun to drive though. The boys decided to check out her full potential. Up and over she went, forwards and backwards over snow mounds as big as 3 metres.

Boys and their toys.

Today I was an honorary boy. I had a blast.

FRIENDLY PENGUIN - friday 16 november

10am this morning I started getting the delta ready for our trip out to Scott’s hut. At 11.45 I meet the group and explained the day’s plan. By midday we were on the road.

Cape Evans here we come.

It was great to finally be behind the wheel and taking a group out. We had 21 pax onboard.

The weather was amazingly warm, almost t-shirt weather. On the trip out we stopped many times for wildlife encounters. Seals were popping up everywhere, making the most of the sunny day.

We arrived at the hut in good time. We spotted an Adelie penguin in the distance. A group of us were lying on the ice taking photos, when this inquisitive creature waddled right up to us. He must have been no more than a metre and a half away. He stood there looking very pleased with himself, I could just picture him thinking, "Cool, I can hang out with you guys” on that note he lay down and closed his eyes. I guess he figured he’d do as his new friends were. Actually my lieutenant was snoring so fair enough!

I enjoyed the rest of the trip, still buzzing about our close encounter. On the way home we saw a seal right on the edge of the road, and one popping his head out of a breathing hole. Brilliant.

PUTTING THE WET STUFF ON THE HOT STUFF - thursday 15 november

Today I saved 6 babies, retrieved 19 cats out of trees, put out 7 structure fires, and helped a little old lady across the street.

Then I woke up.

7.50am. Time to go to work. I'm riding engine one today.

Yesterday was another story though. Yesterday we had a REAL fire. Oooooooohhh yyyyyyyeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhhha!

Around 4.30pm we received an "all call" page. This means that all firefighters, on and off duty received a 911 page to turn up to the firehouse. A matt track vehicle out on the ice road to Cape Evans was fully engulfed in fire. Excitement.

It turned out to be that the gas line had ruptured and ignited. Everyone got out safely and our guys turned up to extinguish. It was located about an hours travel from McMurdo.

Today though has been the usual routine of training and the likes. After lunch we headed out to the helo pad for a building inspection. We got to watch a couple of helicopters taking off. I stuck my thumb up, hoping to hitch a ride.
It was unsuccessful.

SEA ICE SCHOOL - wednesday 14 november

For the rest of the day I had Sea Ice School. This is where you learn about save travel on ice. We learnt how to measure cracks, the types of cracks, making anchors, and signs to look for. It was a fantastic day and mostly out in the field. It was really great to get an understanding on how the environment works down here. The different types of cracks are caused by, tidal movement, pressure build up, movement in the ice, human impact, and where the sea ice meets the ice shelf. For save travel, If the sea ice is thinner than 76cm, then the crack must be narrower than one-third track length (that's the part of the track/wheel which has contact with the ice during travel). All interesting stuff. Out came the drill and the measuring tape, as we made numerous holes in Antarctica.

PENGUIN ON THE RUNWAY - wednesday 14 november

YEEHAR.

3.40am a call comes over the radio "station two this is ice tower" "we have a penguin on the runway which needs removal"

I have never lept out of bed so fast in my life. Penguins. Yeehar. The only trouble was, half way to the ground I realised I was sleeping on the top bunk. Fortunately Chris jumped out exactly the same time and provided a cushy landing. Sorry Chris!

With camera in tow we got clearance from the National Science Foundation and tower to step onto the runway. There sat an adelie penguin minding his own business.

Moving him was a little tricky. Under NSF guidelines you are not allowed to get within 10 metres of wildlife, touch or annoy it in any way. This dude was here to stay. We decided he "doesn't do ice" and wanted a free trip north.

We spent an hour on the runway, walking next to it with our hands in the air trying to divert him off the runway. Eventually he followed orders. I took a great shot of what looks like the adelie heading off into the sunset!

Super wicked.

HANGING OUT ON A C-130 - tuesday 13 november

Back out at station 2 again today. This afternoon we drove out to one of the ski 130’s and did a familiarisation. It was neat to get back inside. We even pulled a line (hose) interior.

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS - Monday 12 november

Early morning I ran ob hill loop track again. Feeling a little crook I decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and watched the movie, march of the penguins. The cinematography was spectacular. I so hope I get to see some penguins down here.

Feeling the need for some retail therapy, I hit the station store. Actually that reminds me about a dream I had down here a few days back. I dreamt I saw this guy walking through one of the buildings here with a McDonalds brown paper bag. I ran up to him, “hey man, how’d you get some Mac Dees?” he replied, “haven’t you heard about the secret door” “No” I responded. “follow me” I eagerly followed him and crawled down through the small door. I stood upright on the other side and found myself in this gigantic American shopping mall. In front of me stood surf shops, book stores, clothing stores and all the food outlets you could dream of. I was like a kid in a candy store. Then I woke up.

RUGBY - Sunday 11 november

Work today. We have shift change at noon, so Sunday’s a pretty easy day. I had rugby training during the afternoon.

I’m on ambo this shift. We had a call at 10.30pm to the smell of burning. It turned out to be a false alarm.

ANTARCTIC EXPLORERS - Saturday 10 november

This morning I ran the Observation Hill loop track. This is a great trail run. It only takes around 45 minutes return, and it feels great getting some cool air into the lungs. I do something outside each day, whether it be hiking, running, skiing. Even now, after a month and a half of being here I still feel the buzz every time I step out that door.

With equipment in tow, Dave, Chris and I headed outside to do as previous explorers have done many a time. Clicked into some skis. First time skiing in Antarctica. Wicked. We decided to test the waters and just ski out to the runway. Dave had skua’d some skis a few weeks back. Unfortunately the bindings had broken; he fixed this by duct taping an old pair of shoes to them instead. As we left the building I pointed out he had no poles, “I’ll find something” Dave responded. Within minutes he’d found an old bamboo flagpole to which he proceeded to break in half. Perfect.
I responded with some hill billie guitar music.
Skiing was great fun, it was a little windy but that was a good excuse for the amount of times we fell over. I traded my poles with Dave since he is quite a bit taller than me. Bamboo actually does make good pole, wonder if Salomon would buy the idea?

During the evening the pub held an event called “freak train” It’s an open mike night. People stand up on stage doing whatever it is they’re best at. There were poems and songs, dress ups and unusual body positions – one guy turned his feet all the way around backwards.

KELLY DAY - Friday 9 november

I have my first Kelly day today. This gives me 3 consecutive days off. Time to relax and recover. Especially from the Scott base escapades the night before. A large group of us walked over for “American” night. We played pool on a kiwi table with kiwi rules. Brilliant. As the night grew on, out came what is called the “ski shot” this is an olden day style ski with 5 shot glasses glued to it. The shot is poured; you stand in a line, and well, hope for the best. I’ve got to get me one of those.

After a fantastic sleep in I hit the Climbing wall with Jared and Dave. (yes you heard right - you name it they have it here) It was nice to get the climbing shoes on again. We set about climbing some cool routes and pulled the video out for a dyno attempt.

After climbing I hit the bike for an hour.

Nigel and Jennie are visiting Jeremy so it was nice to talk to them over the laptop.

WEATHER BALLOON LAUNCH - Thursday 8 november

Up at the crack of dawn. Figuratively not literally. We gear up and hit the snow with our shovels. The road to the runway has been delayed in opening this morning due to last night’s condition one storm. It is vital for us to clear away built up snow surrounding our vehicles, and planes will not take off until so. I gleefully grab my shovel and jump on top of red six. “Wow” I think to myself, “this has got to be the first time I’ve ever shovelled a vehicle out from snow whilst standing on its roof!” The snowdrift is spectacular. I’ve stayed in many cold places before but have never seen a built up quite like this.

So we dig, and dig, and dig. It takes me a good 30 minutes shovelling to sight just part of the wheel. The snow clearing machines are hard at work too. I can see it moving in my peripheral vision. In seconds it has effortlessly picked up the equivalent amount of snow that I have slogged away at during the last hour.

Back in McMurdo I get ready to head over to the weather station. I have been invited to learn about and launch a Weather balloon. I had the great fortune of meeting Debra the weather guru two days prior. We talked; well actually I quizzed her endlessly about the weather. I think she offered me this opportunity to shut me up.

I accepted in seconds.

The balloon records pressure, temperature, distance travelled and a few other weather related information. It travels at 16 metres per second and reaches a height of 22,000 metres. The balloon is filled with helium and inflates to at a guess; my height. I was instructed to hold the balloon at the base and walk it outside. I felt like a small kid walking around a fair holding a double overhead stick of candyfloss.

Here we go. Possibly the first ever Antarctic weather balloon launched by a kiwi. Success. Off she blew. Within seconds she flew out of sight. Bon voyage.

CONDITION ONE - Wednesday 7 november

Out at station two today. The weather is a little nasty today and due to get worse. The day is filled with training and the regular routine. By afternoon the front has moved in and it’s now condition two. The boys and I gear up and head outside for a little rugby (how many times can you say you’ve done that) Rugby in Antarctica in a condition 2 storm. Wicked. The evening draws in and so does worse weather. It’s now condition one. Batten down the hatches. It’s exceeding 50 knot winds, and visibility is less than 5 metres. We get word that a bassler plane is shortly due to land. The pilot had no choice but to continue on and land. We put on our turnout gear and position in the trucks. We can hear him but have no idea where he is, for all we know he could be heading into the building! Alas, he makes a landing and eventually becomes visible. I take my hat off to him. “ Buy that man a beer,” we laugh, our nerves have now eased. No rescue mission today.

SKEWER – Tuesday 6 november

This morning I had my final delta training. I’m now officially a delta driver and leader for trips out to Cape Evans. So stay off the roads!

Leaving the delta I headed over to Skua. Skua for those not in the know is a ship container sized Sally Army Store. It’s a place where people leave items that they don’t want to take north with them. We are free at any time to hunt through the piles of gear and equipment, and take away what we wish. As they say, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. The name comes from an Antarctic bird that looks like an overweight seagull with a tan. They’re scavengers at heart.

I was visiting Skua today for some vital bits of gear. I’m on a mission. I’m pimping out my pad, so to speak. Read on.

I room with 3 others. I’m on a bunk bed, sharing with another firefighter. To limit disturbance, I am sleeping on the floor and Angie has her part of the bunk above. I have decided to build a cosy little nest for myself.

To my delight I find some thick rope, a wooden shelf, a sheet and some old shower curtain hangers. Perfect.

4 hours of blood sweat and tears later. Kiwi Cave was born. (naming rights belong to a friend of mine Zach)

She’s a beaut. I have a multi layer shelf where my laptop sits beside speakers previously Skua’d by my friend Keri. The sounds are perfect for watching movies. I have a target game positioned on the roof for that “can’t sleep” entertainment. Some glow in the dark stars above my head for nigh time authenticity, a wireless remote in hands reach to “change channels”, a stubby holder, some plastic flowers, posters on the wall, and for the grand finale; some Christmas sparkly white lights.
Now that’s what I call pimped out.

MR & MRS SMITH - monday 5 november

Work day today.

I'm on tanker with Thomas, so it's Mr and Mrs Smith riding up front. She's a machine and carries 3700 gallons of water.

Monday checks this morning which involves checking and testing every item on the trucks. After lunch we drove around town doing a famil of the buildings. At 7pm 3 of us headed out in ambo down to the gym to play volleyball. The fire service has a team in the league. Our first game and we drew VMF (vehile maintenance facility), the problem is that these guys fix our trucks when they brake down. We let them win.

SCOTTS 1912 HUT - sunday 4th november

Excited. Trip out to Cape Evans today.

This is where Robert Falcon Scott built his hut during his South Pole traverse expedition. A prodigious feat.

21 of us loaded up all our gear and jumped into the back of delta Dawn for the 1.5 hour trip out.

We stopped along the way because of a seal sighting. She'd popped up from a hole and seemed to be basking on the sea ice under the bright sun. We noticed a small blood trail and think she is about to give birth. Out came the SLR!

The landscape is incredibly vast, it's pure beauty. I tried to capture some shots to really reflect this. Words don't seem to do it justice. Hopefully I can portray it in photography.

I was snap happy and took around 300 shots throughout the day. Hopefully I can sell a couple once I return. Earning a buck or two will help pay for my thousand dollar lens!

Scott's hut was extraordinary, but at the same time a little eerie. It felt like we were somehow disturbing the past. Entering what should now be left to rest. It was a once in a lifetime experience though that I'll never forget. The detail is just amazing. Preserved. It's like Scott, Ponting, Bowers, Wilson and co will be returning for "a warm brew" any minute now.

The tins of pure preserved cabbage sit patiently on the shelf. The mugs lay rusted but ordered on the wall. The lantern on the table waits the striking of a match.

Now this one's for those teachers that punish students for scribbling on their bunks whilst on school camp.
Unbelievably there is an inscription on a bunk from RW Richards. Written above his bedding reads;

August 14, losses to date...

On individual lines below it lists those that have perished on this expedition. He even marks down Shackeltons name with a question mark next to it.

An astonishing find.

I feel incredibly privileged.

I FORGOT......I WON!

I can't believe I forgot to mention. I won one of the cards at bingo. Super stoked.

It is important to note that earlier this evening I had been out trick or treating with friends. I was still wearing my crazy bit's and pieces costume. So, jumping up and down with excitement I headed to the front of the bar to claim my prize. Everyone was cheering "yeah lizzie" then keish, the presenter shouted "oh it's Lizzie's birthday" to which then everyone in the room errupted in singing happy birthday to me. After turning strawberry red I realised I still had a "it's my birthday" hat on. D'oh. Oh well a birthday at home and a birthday in Antarctica sounds pretty good!

I won a scott base cap and some possume gloves - rather ironic, but ever grateful.

As I mentioned above a group of friends and I hit the dorms trick or treating. I was loaded with toilet paper, just waiting for someone to refuse giving up there prized candy......but to no avail. Everyone was more than forth-coming.

Dowering into our goodies bag at the end of the night revealed;

16 x pieces of candy
1 x shampoo bottle
12 x cans of beer
1 x cigar
1 x tampon
1 x firefighting quiz sheet
$2 in numerous coins
6 x crystals from texas
1 x cupcake
1 x gadget for opening boxes
1 x used shaver
and numerous shots along the way

Brilliant.

ICE TOWER - saturday 3 november

Today I’m out at station two until 8pm.

The wind was still blowing her best this morning. I took some great video footage of the snowdrift above the ice.

The day started with the usual truck checks although things proved a little harder in these windy conditions.

Sitting alone against the runway lays our air traffic control centre, or tower as they call it here. It's rather small. It seems almost a complete replica of the Lego air traffic tower I helped my nephew Robert build back home before I left. I can't help but chuckle. I can just visualise these little Lego men inside sitting at their little Lego computers.

Fortunately today though I got to visit inside the Lego tower and can confirm that there are no yellow folk present. Just some super cool guys who are sicked about planes.

I quizzed them till the cows came home. I learnt that these massive air force c-17 planes weighing in at 265 tonne only need a minimum of 1.7m in thickness of the ice to land. (It currently sits at 2.5m thickness). Every hour of flight in a c-17 they burn $5,000 usd in gas. Last year there were 430 C-130's missions throughout Antarctica and 57 C-17 trips between Christchurch and mcmurdo. I also learnt that the reason the planes can't fly here during the winter is because once the ambient temperature drops below -50.c the hydraulics on the planes freeze even whilst in operation. They have had an emergency winter landing here before to which they ran gasoline down the sides of the runway to create a visual for the pilot. The twin otter planes are used in these rear cases.

I also discovered that because we are below the 60th parallel our airport runs on the North grid, so effectively the South Pole is in the north direction.

Lamb for dinner. Not for me though. I thought of the boys back home on station; I reckon they've been eating that every night ever since I left.

I played Scott at darts. 16 games. kiwi won one. yeah. I can only get better from here in.

It's 10pm. I'd better hit the hay and rest up for tomorrow's adventures.

See you see you.

YOU GOT MAIL - friday 2 november

YEAH. I got mail. YEAH YEAH YEAH. Thanks pops for the Milo and Faith for the incredibly awesome Milo poem that is now on my wall. Thanks Nigel and Jennie for your travelling postcard, it looks nice and warm. I also got the invitation to one of my friends wedding. WICKED. Mail is like gold down here. Apparently there is 20,000 pounds of box package mail sitting in chch waiting to come down here. Flat mail, such as letters or anything posted into one of those big envelopes from the post office gets here super fast. Dad only sent that package on the 24th and it's already here. Unfortunately I’m still waiting for my firefighting uniform to get here, which was sent to chch from the states in September.

This morning I had delta training. I got to drive the beast around to practise for the trips I’ll lead out to cape Evans. What a blast. This thing is SO big, her wheels are over my head.

The arvo has been spent cruising and chatting with friends. Typing on the computer, and reading my lovely mail. Hint hint.
It was lovely to talk to hubby for a while today, and Cam too. They're getting ready to head over the hill to martinborough for a good friends wedding. I've sent them a telegraph from Antarctica to read at their wedding. Hopefully they think that's pretty cool.

I ran up the ridge track too. It was so incredibly windy. Now I though Wellington was windy but that is nothing compared to the gusts we get down here. I wish I had my camera to video. I was leaning over 45 degress and the wind was holding my body weight up. Incredible.

Tonight I had more delta training then watched a video with some friends. I have my first trip to Cape Evans this Sunday,

SWEET AS.

PUMPKIN PIE FOR DESSERT? - thursday 1 november

On shift today. I'm riding engine one.

At breakfast this morning i unknowingly sat next to a lady called Ann Curry who is the presenter on the US today news show. Fancy that, here I am chatting away about vegemite or something to a lady who is known by millions! Brilliant. It was only when she headed off to get a coffee that I was enlightened on her status.
So out came the camera. Someone famous and myself in Antarctica

This morning at work we did some ARFF rescue training, preparing ourselves for any future in-flight emergencies.

After lunch we headed over to the 15 million dollar science lab for a familiarisation tour. What a great building and much used facility. I was even fortunate enough to visit the aquarium. The seawater temperature here is around -2.c. Divers have reported seeing distances of 200-300 feet, since the water is so clear. The fish are incredible. I took some video of them swimming around their tank. They surface the water and make bubbles; I couldn't believe how long they kept their heads out of the water. I was also fortunate to see some core samples from a depth of 300 feet, to which they have found organism and readings from up to 10 million years ago. It takes so long to drill here. First they have to drill through the frozen ice layer, then through the depths of the ocean to reach the floor bedding.

The afternoon brought some blasting. This is the most efficient way of moving the thick solid volcanic rock base here. Apparently they're making way for a new fuel tank.

Dinner was amusing. I picked up a piece of what I thought was like a caramel cake for desert. It turned out to be pumpkin! Much to my amusement I learnt that this is how americans eat their pumpkin. In a pie for desert with ice cream and whipped cream. I politely took a bite and muttered "mmmmm yummy" then slid it over the table for my friend to eat. You gotta try everything once right. The guys thought it highly funny that we eat it with our dinner "you know meat and two veg" I explained.

At midnight we had a firecall to the boldering (rock climbing) cave. The chalk dust used in climbing had activated the smoke detector. I was fast asleep and once at the call I got a rude awakening by trying to get some tools out of the truck then realising I had no gloves on. No gloves on in Antarctica is bad news.