Blog #1 – First Week/ New Zealand

Hello all! I am writing this from my hotel room (could be considered a suite, honestly) in Christchurch, NZ. My suite has a separate living room with a full kitchenette, including a dishwasher and electric kettle. And in the bathroom, I have a heated towel rack and a full laundry to use for free (they even include free detergent)! It is extremely nice, so I don’t necessarily mind when they delay our flight out to the ice for a day. I hope to update the blog semi regularly but it’ll depend on my internet access and if I can get connected to the Ethernet once I get my laptop down here. I’ll try to upload pictures with my blog posts. Please feel free to comment, as I want to hear from you guys, too!

My flight from Indy to Houston went very well and I was feeling good about my flight to Aukland. I had a bit of a layover, so I walked around the Houston airport and did some good people watching. Once I got to my gate, it was very easy to pick out who else was probably heading to the ice. Most people that go to the ice aren’t first-timers, so everyone had friends or knew some of the others ticketed for the flight. There ended up being at least twenty people on the flight from Houston to Aukland that were Antarctic people. I stuck to myself for a couple hours, and it wasn’t until the flight got delayed for about the fourth time that I introduced myself. People instantly took me under their wing, and it was very nice to be around people who had previous experience and knew what they were doing (and also they had contacts that were on the ice currently, so current weather conditions/flight plans/happenings were relayed through these contacts to all of us, by word of mouth, preparing to go). After the fourth/fifth delay, updates about the aircraft stalled, and around 3:30 AM, they fully cancelled the flight. I quickly learned that all ice people stick together, so one guy was able to contract the USAP (United States Antarctic Program) travel personnel on behalf of all of us and figure out what the next steps were. Air New Zealand ended up giving everyone on the flight vouchers for hotels, and they were able to set us up with specific hotels they probably had deals with, and we were all able to get rooms at four in the morning. They did “release” our checked luggage, so all of us were carting around about 100 lbs each in just packed bags. Many of us got booked at the same hotel, so a bunch of us loaded into shared Ubers and carpooled over there. The percentage of men to women in the Antarctic program is about 70/30 (maaaaybe 60/40), so I’ve been using that to my advantage! They are all military/traditional with their manners so I haven’t had to carry my heavy luggage around. I definitely could, of course, but I am more than open to playing a feeble woman if it’s four AM and a guy wants to carry my bags.

Anyways, they put us up for the night and rescheduled us to the next flight out, which was the next day (technically the same day, at that point) at the same time – 9:55PM. We ended up checking out around 11 in the morning and had a few hours at the airport before any action happened. But, the flight crew showed up at the standard time, three hours before the flight, so none of us could check our bags or get our new boarding passes, which meant we couldn’t go through TSA either. What a mess! So, we piled all of our luggage into a corner of the airport lobby and a couple of the guys stayed to watch our bags while a few of us split up to do our own things. One guy went to a BBQ place to get a few drinks, one guy who works for NASA went to the Houston location to say hello to some coworkers and clock a few hours, and I went to an AMC down the road to watch a movie (La La Land, if anyone was wondering). Fast forward a few hours, the flight DID take off. I was put in a middle, middle seat, which I would not wish on my worst enemy. It was a gnarly 14 hours, but the dinner and breakfast meals they gave us were actually very good! I was dosed up on a lot of Dramamine and was able to get a couple hours of uninterrupted sleep, so the next morning when we landed wasn’t too bad. We all had connecting flights from Aukland to Christchurch, and I was able to get a window seat for that flight (which was very lucky, as the turbulence between the two cities was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced). Customs were pretty cool because we all had special letters that we were traveling on as participants in the USAP, so we received special visa stamps on our passports. The USAP truly takes care of everything, so when I arrived at the Christchurch airport, they had a desk set up for us where we received envelopes with our hotel accommodations and details on our flu shot we would receive at the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center), as well a free personal shuttle to the airport they put you at. And the hotel is extremely nice, as I mentioned before!

As for Christchurch (abbreviation is ChCh), it is a fantastic little city. It’s called a 30-minute city, which means you can get most places on foot within 30 minutes. And actually, most notable destinations outside of the city center, but still considered Christchurch, are 30 minutes or less by car. The earthquake in 2011 destroyed a lot of infrastructure in the ChCh, and they are still rebuilding much of it, including the city’s main cathedral that was built between 1864 and 1904. The food is amazing here. Everything is very fresh and all of their produce, dairy, meat is very good quality, and the positives of the exchange rate show when buying food in NZ. There’s absolutely no tipping culture here, which is obviously very jarring as an American baby, but everyone in service seems genuinely warm and helpful here, as I assume they get paid a livable wage without having to work extra for tips. I tried Muesli for the first time, which is a traditional breakfast dish originating from Switzerland, consisting of rolled oats, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits, and usually served with milk and/or yogurt and other fresh toppings. It is right up my alley and I think I could have it every day without getting sick of it.

I really tend to enjoy exploring new places by myself because it tends to give me more time to take it all in and process the things I’m experiencing (and I also get to do exactly what I want to do), but I’ve been trying to have a good balance here between my solo adventures and spending time with the new friends I’ve made while traveling. I don’t think that any of us would necessarily be buddies back in our respective home bases, but now we all have at least two things in common: being Americans in a foreign country and having jobs in Antarctica. And it’s enough to keep us all hanging out. Especially with the delays, I’ve had good time to enjoy what ChCh has to offer and I feel like I can check some things off the travel list. I’ve done numerous loops around the city center exploring restaurants and bars and stores. I always find it fascinating to go to thrifts, vintage stores, and/or antique stores, as it offers up a new lens on wherever I’ve traveled to and you can kind of peer into the culture or the people(s) or the history that way. This is also my first truly international experience, so it’s fun as a fashion lover to find all of these new brands and to even just look at the material content in their clothing.

A few of us used the bus system and took a bus out to Lyttelton, which is a very cute little port town to the southwest of the city that sees a lot of foreigners passing through cruise systems or military vessels. We stopped at the gondola first, which takes you up past grazing sheep to a building housing a restaurant and bar, gift shop, and discovery center, as well as a viewpoint and network of trails. It was very, very gorgeous and it was easy to get sentimental about the current state of my life (in a thankful sort of way). Some pictures below.

All of the locals I’ve met are extremely sweet and welcoming, and there seems to be a really good sense of community and “village” outlook. Everyone seems to have a genuine sense of pride in their heritage and the land in which they live, and they are very open to sharing that with travelers. It is also known as the gateway city for Antarctic travelers so we’ve all felt very welcomed in that sense. In fact, the mayor of Christchurch invited us on a private tour of their new mega-stadium today, which she personally attended. She randomly met one of our firefighters a couple years ago and they have developed a close friendship, her inviting him over for dinner with her family whenever he comes back here (it’ll be his third or fourth season this year) or asking him for advice on U.S. schools to send their daughter to. The stadium was extremely cool, and we were able to see all the bells and whistles of the place, including the coach boxes, the control room, and the locker rooms. They host a number of regular sporting events like rugby and football (soccer) for their own teams, concerts, and conferences. The building was actually built with earthquakes in mind, so the stands and vendors and field are housed in one structure, while the dome and supporting framework is housed in another (so during an earthquake, both structures would shake independently from one another, thus causing less damage and/or an easier rebuild). We all felt quite lucky to meet the mayor and go on a private tour like that. Apparently, she really wants to get down to the ice at some point, so an arrangement is in the works.

The fuelies here in ChCh right now were all bumped to the second flight out (we were originally on the third, and last, winfly flight) but it was supposed to leave Monday, August 24th. It’s been delayed 24 hours twice now, one due to aircraft maintenance and one due to extreme cold weather at McMurdo. Some of the guys regularly check the weather down on the ice, as well as communicate with their buddies already down there, and there were rumors of a third delay as tomorrow, Wednesday, August 26th, is supposed to be just as cold as it was today. My shuttle pickup time for flight days is 6:30 AM, so I’ve been waking up around 5:30 the last two mornings to check for the delay email and then go back to bed for a little after plans have been cancelled. They have not said anything about tomorrow yet, so we’ll see! Until they actually delay the flight (which could be anytime), all of your bags have to be packed up and ready to go. Some people have also had their hotels switched because of no available accommodations after the original booking days, but I’ve luckily been able to stay in my room and hotel, and just have to get the front desk to activate my room key again. Winfly can be a tricky time to fly out, as weather down on the ice is extremely unpredictable and colder during the winter months, so it would be unsurprising to be delayed again. Not the worst place to get stuck! In the meantime, I will be trying a meat pie and learning military lingo.

All for now. Thanks for reading (or not). xo