More flight delays

The flight has been delayed until January 2nd at 7:30 pm so it's time to rent a car and tour the countryside. We're thinking of driving up the coast to Kaikoura and then trying to get to Nelson or even further into the fjords. It's supposed to be gorgeous there. I didn't get a chance to see it last year, so I'm very excited.

We were originally planning on going to a cricket match today but ended up deciding to just grab a big dinner and get some rest. Most of us were fairly hung over all day and since we will be doing a lot of driving/hiking early tomorrow morning, we decided it would be best to go to bed. We ate at an indian restaurant downtown that was absolutely phenomenal. There were actually a lot of Indian people eating there, so you know it had to be good. When I ordered a dish as spicy, it actually came out spicy, not white-man spicy. After a few bites, we were all sweating and our noses were starting to run--the good stuff. Had a couple of local organic pilsners. They were actually pretty good unlike most of the NZ beers I've had.

That's all for now. In the next couple of days, I'll expect to take some breathtaking pictures. I can't wait! Middle Earth, here we come!

Day 1 in New Zealand

At the hotel, I grabbed a snack and a beer at the bar and then went to the Windsor to meet Zak and Grant. We went to the Dux de Lux nearby for some great food and beer. It's a microbrewery which means its beer is slightly better than normal New Zealand beer. I had the green-lipped mussels (which were enormous) and their pale ale and bitter. The beers were good, the mussels were amazing.





We then wanted to go to this japanese place across town but when we arrived there, it was closed. Yesterday was New Zealand's boxing day and combined with the earthquake a couple of days ago, a lot of business were closed. We ended up going to this british nearby where I got another new zealand beer and some appetizers. The onion rings were good but the bread and dips was terrible. The dips were almost unrecognizable versions of normal dips--a pesto, a hummus, and a sun-dried tomato, but were just awful. After this we wandered around the city. We could see the destruction from the earthquake. New Zealand has very strict building standards so the damage was minimal but still visible--cracked windows and facades, some buildings even looked partially demolished. Pic below:

South Pole Station

The C-130 cargo plane that flew us from McMurdo to the South Pole (about 3 hours flight)





Me just getting off the plane by the station, in full Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear. It was about -35 F outside with a windchill of -50 F.



My teeny tiny room.

The flight left this morning at around 9 am. We flew in a C-130, which is a propellor driven military cargo plane. It was really loud. They passed out earplugs before the flight. We had two 2-star generals and two 1-star generals on the flight, which was really cool. We figured that if anything should happen, we'd be rescued right away. Those guys are valuable. They said that they were just on a tour of the station, but I figure they were probably going to examine the alien spacecraft hidden under the ice. Since we were so heavy, we could only climb to a max altitude of 24,000 feet. About half way into the flight, the ice/mountains were over 10,000 feet, so we were really close. At one point, we dropped in and flew between the mountains. It was really cool to look out the window and see the side of a mountain. The landing was incredibly smooth (seeing as how we landed on skis on an ice runway). When we deplaned, the temperature was about -35 degrees F. It was coooooooold!!!! We entered south pole station and got our debreifing.

The crazy thing about the south pole is that is sits at an elevation of 9,3000 feet, and with the pressure and temperature, it feels more like over 10,000. So the biggest thing when you arrive is to make sure that you don't get altitude sickness. I started taking Diamox in McMurdo which helps prevent symptoms of altitude sickness, but it's got some weird side effects. Apparently, it works by ridding your blood of carbonate, which makes it more acidic, which triggers your body's natural reflext to breathe more. In ridding the carbonate, it does it one way--it makes you pee a lot. Like every 3 hours. I haven't had any of the other side effects yet, but apparently it can make random parts of your body go numb for random periods of time. Sounds kind of fun.

Here, I have my own room, well more like closet. It's got a bed, a desk, and a closet. I think its dimensions are 6'x10'. It's small. No windows either, which is probably a good thing since it will be easier to sleep. The station is really nice. It's brand new, opened last year. There's a gym for basketball/volleyball/indoor soccer, a cardio gym, and a weight room. The cafeteria is open 24/7 but has normal meal times. The rest of the time you can have left overs or cereal, etc. Lunch today was good, and I'll grab dinner in an hour or so. Lunch was beef sloppy joes (which were really tasty) and they had all sorts of sides, from fries, to fruit, to salad.

After lunch, and unpacking my things, I went to their music room and played guitar for a couple of hours. They have some nice equiptment. I started playing a Strat through a fender blues deluxe, then moved onto a Gibson SG, then moved onto an acousitc (made of carbon fiber).

I haven't been to the lab yet. I'll go tomorrow morning at 8am to check on the status of all our crates.

I haven't gotten a chance to upload pictures yet. Internet can be spotty--it depends on when satellites are flying through. I didn't even see a scheduled internet time for right now...

Weird things about south pole so far:

- Allowance of 2 2min showers a week
- 1 load of laundry /week
- they really REALLY emphasize washing your hands
- The station is on stilts
- the actual south pole is like 20 feet away from the building
- all waste gets shipped out (especially poop)
- all water comes from melted ice
- it's at an elevation of 9,300 feet, of which 90% is ice.
- There are 231 of us here right now

I'll post more of these once I learn more

Another delay

Not sure exactly why, but now my flight has been delayed until tuesday. There was a new group that came in yesterday, so I imagine some of them have priority on the monday flight.

Last night after the nature cruise, we all went out for dinner at this place called beer and burgers. It was very very cool. The logo was a black and white 1950's style school-girl vampire eating a burger. Really kitschey. They had posters on the walls of cartoons that would say "don't fight! Eat a burger" and would have one frame with two people fighting, and then the next frame would be the two people in the same position but with burgers in their hands. Had the same for "don't drink and drive! Have a burger" but with one of the patrons up in a tree. Very cool restaurant. Good food and good beer. We then went to Bailies for more drinks. It's right in Cathedral square and was full of usap people. There was also a soccer game on tv with NZ vs Bahrain. NZ won, but their team looked like shit. Got good and drunk, then went home and had a nice sleep! I like new zealanders. The innkeeper made an announcement that breakfast would be closing instead of just closing it. That allowed me to get up, throw some pants on, and get a decent breakfast.

After that, I went for a run in the park and did a quick workout. I think Phil rented a car, so we may take a longer excursion today. Hopefully, we'll be able to get into the mountains!

"stuck" in new zealand for the weekend

Due to weather, the flight this morning was cancelled. I don't think they fly on sundays, so that means I'm here til monday. The plan for today is to go to Akaroa which is further south than Lyttleton on the volcanic crater, where we'll hire a boat to take us out dolphin watching. Yep. New Zealand kicks ass.

Last night we just went to the Dux de Lux for dinner and drinks. Food was good. They serve all vegetarian, and fish. I got the seafood jumbalaya. It had squid and shrimp as well as local mussels, which were great, and a huge prawn. The beer was good, but I've already talked about that

First Day in New Zealand

Went to dinner with Rashmi at the Bailey's in the city square. Had a moroccan chicken sandwich. It was pretty good. Had some New Zealand beer with it. It was a light pilsner, very refreshing, not much to it. Walked around Christchurch for a while. Nice city, but everything shuts down at 5 and they barely open on the weekends. It's just weird. Lots of sex shops too. That was mildly unexpected. Wacky Kiwis. Bought my standard New Zealand t-shirt with the All Blacks logo on it. Planned on taking a nap and then hitting the town, but I woke up from the nap at around 2 am and decided to just sleep through the night. Had a nice breakfast this morning at the hotel. They had a lot of fruit (tons of kiwis) and eggs and bacon (which was more like canadian bacon than the far superior american bacon) and sausage. I had Marmite, which was advertised as a yeast spread. It was a dark brown, almost molasses looking spread which tasted just about as bad as it smelled. It was bitter and sour and tasted like uncooked bitter dough. The waitress said it was to be eaten with margarine, so it's just a winning combination.

After breakfast, I went to the nearby botanical gardens which were fairly nice. It was funny, the most impressive trees were originally from california. Then I went to the museum right by the gardens. They had the history of the indigenous people, the Maori and the Moriari. They neglected to mention the slaughter of the non-violent Moriori by the aggressive and expansionist Maori. They had gems and meteors and mummies, and even a dinosaur or two. They also had a whole exhibit on antarctica and the early expeditions. It was cool. And it was all free!