South Pole 2011-2012

It's that time of year again, I've been PQ'd and ticketed and am off to the Pole. I thought I was leaving saturday but found out I'm leaving thursday so things just got slightly more hectic (and Sara got slightly more sad). The route is the same: fly to Auckland, NZ then to Christchurch, NZ leaving on the 1st and landing on the 3rd (thanks, international date line). Then off to McMurdo 2 days later and finally the South Pole the following day. I should be on the ice by the 6th and I'm supposed to stay until late January (around the 28th).

I'm definitely not looking forward to the long flights and hectic travel but I am very excited to get back to NZ and Antarctica. This year hopefully I will be able to visit my cousins in Australia who I have yet to meet, as well as catch up with Christian Heeres who I grew up with. I'm nervous as this year will be the first year that I will be the only one in charge of the telescope. Since everything is working excellently, we're down there with a skeleton crew doing testing and babysitting the cryostat so if anything goes wrong, it's up to me to fix it. My main goal this year is to test the frequency response of the telescope at the pole. To do this, I've shipped down a Fourier Transform Spectronomer (FTS) which produces light at frequencies from a few GHz up to about 1 THz with ~200 MHz resolution so we can see how our telescope responds to all frequencies within the band (125 to 175 GHz) and outside of the band. This will be an absolute pain. It's a large device (about the size of a dinner table) that weighs a few hundred pounds that I need to place on the roof of the lab and then couple the output light to the telescope using a series of mirrors and lenses that all need to be very well aligned. The only upside is to align them, I get to play with a really really bright laser.

I'm also anxious to see what state Christchurch is in after the latest earthquake which struck about a week after I left. There were already a large number of buildings in rubble and streets closed after the previous year's earthquake and this one was even larger. I have heard that the famous Cathedral in the heart of the city is in ruin.

So expect posts this year about:

- the state of Christchurch
- race around the world on christmas
- new years at the pole
- turning 27 at the pole
- Australia (Australia, Australia, we love ya amen)
- and many many complaints about how much of a pain setting up the FTS is

Hiking in Marlborough Sound

Two days ago, we were in Picton, which is about 5 hours up and around the coast of the southern island from Christchurch. We arrived at around 10:30 on new year's eve and watched the fireworks. The next morning, we went to Le Cafe a few blocks away and had breakfast. It was very good. At about 1:30, we went to the docks and hired a boat to take us out into the sound and drop us off somewhere out on the remote parts of the peninsula and then pick us up at a spot about 4 hours away. The boat ride was long and gorgeous. We were on it for about an hour and a half and the scenery was breathtaking. Eventually we arrived at Ship's Cove where we started our hike. About 2 minutes in, we saw our first animal. It's called a Weka and is about the size of a chicken. It's a flightless bird that is only lives in the area where we were hiking. It was very different.



Half an hour later, we were almost run off the path by an errant cow. It must have lost it's way from one of the farms and found the trail. It was a strange experience.

As we hiked, we came across spectacular views, as well as remote farms--some of which we had to walk between sheep and chicken to get past. The views were just amazing. At one point, you could look into the sound and turn around and look into Cook's straight (in between the North and South Islands) and if you stared hard enough, you could just see the tip of the north island.



Occasionally, we would stop and snack while Wekas waited anxiously for us to drop any food. Eventually we reached our destination (Furnaux campgrounds) which had a pier. As we were waiting, we waded in the water. The water was surprisingly warm and very clear. We spoke with some people who had boated in from Wellington (on the north island) for vacation (or holiday). They were diving for Crays (which are essentially rock lobsters) and were all around enjoying themselves. Eventually, our boat arrived and we started heading back. Marlborough is wine country here in New Zealand so we decided to split a bottle of wine on the boat (they had a makeshift bar on the boat where we could buy wine). As we rode back to Picton (about an hour of a ride) the sun was starting to set. As we passed boats and ferries, wine in hand, it was easy to get lost in the beauty. New Zealand has such an incredibly beautiful and diverse landscape.



One we disembarked, we went back to our respective hotel rooms showered and changed and met back up at Le Cafe for a late dinner (it was about 10pm by this point). I had my first (and probably last) NZ grass fed, free range Angus beef steak. It was beyond delicious. New Zealand is small enough that they don't need to torture their meat to feed their people. You can feel much better about eating animals here. You drive by their pastures all day and they're munching on grass with acres (or hectares) of room to run around. Many of the cafe's even have all organic/local food.

Our goal was to drive back in the morning in time to return the rental car and catch our flight southbound but since the flight was delayed we were able to have a nice breakfast before driving straight back to Christchurch. Once we checked back into our hotels we pretty much just rested. I think I've come down with a cold (Grant had one and most likely gave it to me) so a little rest is nice. Our flight is supposed to leave later today but who knows...

One Very Long and Interesting day

I don't even know where to begin...

Well, both the New Zealand and the Pakistani cricket teams ended up staying in my hotel last night and both teams came down for breakfast at the same time. It was awkward since Pakistan beat the crap out of New Zealand. One of the New Zealand players at the table next to me was reading a newspaper that had a giant picture of the team with a headline to the effect of "embarrassment." It was pretty funny. All the Pakistani players were all wearing matching button-up shirts and khakis and looked clean cut whereas all the NZ players looked like they just woke up and rolled out of bed.

After breakfast Zak and I went to rent a car. We hopped on a shuttle to the airport where there was a nice dutch family and we struck up a conversation. On the way, I saw a 1969 mustang on the road. It was an American import, not one designed for Australia/NZ--so not that exciting, but still cool to see.



Once we got the car, we headed north up the coast to Kaikoura, about a 3 hour drive. The drive was beautiful, right in between the mountains and the ocean but the town was kind of touristy and boring. We ate a terrible lunch at this horrible restaurant that nearly made us all sick and then got on a boat to go whale watching. The boat was expensive, at $145 NZ, but I don't know the next time I'll have the opportunity. We rode for about 20 minutes and then spotted a large Sperm Whale. It was actually sleeping when we came upon it (not that it would have looked much different awake). It was impressive to see. We got within maybe 40 feet of it. After hovering there for a while, we went to an area to see some Dusky dolphins. There were about 300 of them and they were all jumping very high into the air--some in synchronized packs of 4 or 5! It was very cool. We got so close that we could reach out of the boat and touch them.






Since the town was kind of a huge let-down, we decided to keep moving up the coast on to Picton, about 2 hours away. We arrived shortly after sunset and there was already a new year's party in full swing (remember that we are across the international dateline here so we're a day ahead--essentially I'm writing this from the future). We found a hotel with a vacancy and then set out for some food. Our appetites, mostly destroyed from the terrible lunch (I'm queasy just thinking about it now) were now starting to return (at 10:30pm) and we found an Indian restaurant that was open. The food was decent and we ate with great fervor. We then went to the harbor where there was a live band and had a couple of beers. At the new year, there were fireworks over the harbor. They were okay, but could have used a lesson in showmanship from SeaWorld or Disneyland. Afterwards, we all went back to the hotel to get some sleep for the day ahead.

We woke up this morning and chartered a boat to take us to the end of Marlborough sound so we can go hiking. This is supposed to be one of the 10 best hikes in the world! We're leaving at 1:30 and the boat will pick us back up at around 6 or so. I'm excited for the boat ride since we'll be riding through some very interesting features. It looks somewhat like the pacific northwest here in Picton, but with more dramatic features. I'm very impressed with this city so far. It's very clean and the views are spectacular. All the restaurants and bars seem to be more real and less touristy. Picton is where you can catch the ferry to the North Island, so it has a lot of visitors, but isn't set up like a crappy port town. We ate breakfast at a charming little cafe right by the water. I had scrambled eggs with smoked whitefish and a home-made bread. It was quite delicious. I'm very impressed with Picton. I would definitely come back here for vacation.

And yes, that's a picture of me driving on the wrong side.

Flight Delayed...

Had a great day in New Zealand today... fairly laid back. Being a server in NZ must be the easiest job in the world--you don't tip, and the people are too nice to complain. Our lunch lasted about 3 hours--dinner almost the same.

I read in the paper today that Maria Sharapova landed in NZ yesterday on a flight from LA, so she must have been on my flight.

Went to the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) today and got all my ECW gear. Since I've done this before, I knew exactly what I needed and how it should fit.

When I got back to the hotel, I found out that the flight was delayed 24 hours so now we're deciding on what to do. We're thinking of taking a day trip to either the Alps or Akaroa. My vote is for the alps since the last time I went, the weather was terrible.

The flight is at 7am, meaning I would have to be at the CDC at 4:30am, which puts my wakeup time at 3:30am--so I'm happy I don't have to do it tomorrow.

Arrived in Christchurch!

I'm in New Zealand. The weather is terrible. It's cold, rainy, and veeeery windy. The flights were ok. The first flight from LAX to Auckland was about 13 hours long. I watched 3 movies and then closed my eyes and pretending I was asleep for about 5 hours. The meal was served while I was watching Inception so I spent the last 40 minutes of the movie trying not to vomit. Not the best part of my flight. After my nausea subsided, I watched Dinner For Schmucks. I understand that this movie is usually watched to induce nausea, but I took my chances of a double-negative effect. I liked it. It had more of a plot than I was expecting. Finally, I watched The Other Guys with Marky Mark. It was also surprisingly good. Once the flight landed in Auckland, I had to go through customs. New Zealand has very tight customs restrictions pertaining to food. If you bring food in, you get fined $400. They also check your hiking shoes to make sure that you don't have dog crap on them. The flight from Auckland to Christchurch was about an hour and very turbulent. There were a lot of younger people on the flights and they wouldn't shut up. It's no wonder why everybody hates American travelers.

Finally, my team and I took a quick stop-off at the Clothing Distribution Center to drop off some equipment that we hand carried on the planes and then went to our hotels. I decided to stay in a real hotel this year, right near downtown. Christchurch is small, so that only saves me ~5 blocks of walking, but I'm mostly excited to stay in a hotel with a restaurant, bar, gym, and private bathrooms. I don't know why everyone doesn't do this! I only get 2 hours of internet access a day here, so I may not have time to post pictures, but this place looks like a 5 star hotel from the late 70s that hasn't changed since the BeeGees.

The Hotel is the Crowne Plaza and I'm in room 607 if you want to make a very expensive call to harass me.

It's that time of year again

Tomorrow night, I will begin my journey to the south pole for the second time. It's very exciting, although I'm not looking forward to leave civilization behind for so long.

For anyone new to this blog, or for a refresher, check out my first post from last year to hear about the science aspects of my trip. I intend for this blog to have a very small amount of science content and mostly describe what life is like at the South Pole.

As a quick refresher, I am part of team BICEP 2, which is a telescope at the south pole that is looking at the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the glowing remnants of the big bang, for evidence of the early gravitational waves that torqued our early universe during inflation, leading to the interesting universe that we see today. That's a bit dense, so in layman's terms, the telescope looks in the microwave spectrum (vs the visible spectrum of the Hubble). At this wavelength, the universe glows--a ghost signal from the big bang. Hidden in this glow are clues as to how the universe formed. We are looking for a certain signal that will show when the universe underwent a very rapid expansion--an expansion that explains several "strange" things that we see in the universe today. We're located at the south pole for two reasons. First, it's very dry there. Since we're looking in the microwave spectrum, we don't want a lot of water in the air absorbing the microwaves that we want to see. Next, there's a spot visible from the south pole that has the lowest galactic foreground contamination (it's empty) which is where we observe.

I leave tomorrow night at 11:30 and arrive in Auckland, New Zealand at 9:50 am two days later. I then get on an hour long flight from Auckland to Christchurch where I'll be staying in a hotel in Cathedral Square in downtown. Last year I stayed at a bed and breakfast which was nice but the rooms were tiny and I had to share a bathroom with the whole floor. Although they had decent food and a very nice staff, I think I'll have more fun downtown. The following day, I go to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to pick up my extreme cold weather (ECW) gear. Then, the next morning I will depart for McMurdo, Antarctica for an overnight stay before arriving at the South Pole on December 31st--just in time to wish in the new year.

Please post or email me any questions about the trip or random questions about the pole and I'll answer them with a FAQ section. I will have a phone number and email address where I can be easily reached assigned to me once I arrive so I will post them once I know them.

My itinerary

So I leave LAX on monday (the 9th) at 10:30 pm and arrive in Sydney, Australia at 9 am on the 11th. A nice leisurely 15 hour flight. I then leave from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand, where I'm pretty sure I'll be greeted by at least one of the Chonchords. Maybe Murray. From there, I have 2 days before I leave for antarctica. For starters, I have to get my Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear. I'm pretty sure it's sponsored by mountain dew. I have to get my computer checked for viruses/decepticons, and my arm poked with swine flu. I have one major goal in NZ: get drunk with kiwi's and listen to their funny accents. Insert obligatory Lord of the Rings comment here.

From NZ, I should be taking a C-17 to McMurdo station on the coast of antarctica, where I will be staying for the night. I'll then take an LC-130 giant prop cargo plane to the South Pole. This thing takes off and lands on ski's. And it's huge. From there, I'll be staying at the South Pole station for the next 4+ weeks, putting the telescope together.