See ya when I see ya
Sent from my iPhone.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Waiting and watching
I've been waiting in LAX for over 10 hours and now they want me to
wait more.
wait more.
On another note: a lot of pretty girls here... After hearing them
speak it's pretty clear that's all they got going for them. Ha!
I'll update later if I ever make it to Chicago or home.
Adiós for now
Sent from my iPhone.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Flying back home
Howdie all!
Today my trip will officially come to an end. The past few days in Christchurch have been great. Its nice and warm here with a light breeze and darkness! I just saw that it is -3 degrees in Kent.... sweet.... at least its not -30.
I leave Friday at 230pm from Christchurch and make stops in Auckland, LA, Chicago and then Finally land in Cleveland on FRIDAY (still) at 11pm.
Sadly, this may be the last post... but check up on this every once in a while, maybe Ill post about moving to Houston in 5 months? Who Knows.
Hope you enjoyed it. I sure enjoyed the experience.
If youd like to see more pictures you can A) ask me B) call me or C) email me at finotem at gmail.com
Thanks for reading. Adios for now
--------------------------------------------------------------If a plane lands... get on it.
-Old Antarctic Proverb
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Christchurch New Zealand
First station at 9000ft
looking over the cliff
standing on the edge of the cliff
glacier on the side of Erebus
Discovery Point and McMurdo from the Helicopter
Top of Mt Erebus
Driving on the wrong side
Kayaking in Akaroa
Castle Hill
So Im here in Christchurch until Friday afternoon... then I get to
make the long journey back from Christchurch -> Auckland -> L.A. ->
Chicago -> Cleveland... arriving at 11:05pm.
I rented a car for a couple of days and drove out to Akaroa to go
kayaking in this small french town. It was a blast, difficult and I
got fried. We kayaked about 7km out towards the sea and then pulled
off onto a beach to have some lunch. The way out was pretty easy
because the wind was at our backs but this of course would mean that
on the way back in it would be in our faces, making the trip back
twice as hard. In the end we made it back safely with only Sam falling
in the water when the kayak took her out on the beach.... it was
awesome! but she didnt think so. The drive to this place was a blast
because of all the winding roads up and down left and right. Sure the
sign said go 35 but I went 60 to make it more interesting!
The next day Sam and I drove out to Arthurs pass which I think is one
of only 3 ways to get to the west coast on the south island. The roads
here were much narrower full of twists ups and downs so I was
thoroughly entertained.Once we got there we took a 100ft hike to a
waterfall, had some coffee, bought a lollipop and drove back to
Christchuch. On the way back we passed a resort that said Helicopter
tours.... so we stopped. The pilot took us to the top of the mountains
and was nice enough to set the helicopter down so we could walk around
on Flock Hill which some of you may recognize from a movie. This was
where they filmed the final battle from the Chronicles of Narnia. We
climbed a couple of rocks, took pictures then were on our way. Then we
stopped at Castle Hill which some of you may have heard because it is
famous for bouldering.... hey Mike, you jealous? Again, we climbed a
few rocks, took some pictures then were on our way home because it was
getting late and still had to drive for over an hour.
Today I didnt do much. Both Sam and Tim left New Zealand so I am not
by myself to wander. I walked pretty much all day in Christchurch
trying to see what I could find. Still not sure what I will do
tomorrow but Im thinking maybe to head down to the beach and lay there
all day.
Oh man I almost forgot! In the end the weather cleared up and I did
get to go up Mt Erebus! The weather was crap in McMurdo but near the
top of the volcano is was really really nice. The first site we went
to was at 9,000ft and the second was at 9,800ft. The winds were
nonexistent, a nice and WARM -10 degrees with blue skies above the
lower clouds. The work wasnt that difficult to begin with (power tools
:) and 10,000ft is still about 2,500ft below AGAP camp so I had no
problems breathing. We made an attempt to do a third site but the
storm had come in so we had to leave the mountain.
The flight back to Christchurch was fricking awesome! We thankfully
didnt have to fly in a C130 Hercules and got to fly in an Airbus! I
sat first class and the flight time was cut in half to 4 hours. The
pilot was also cool enough to do a corkscrew take off.... take off and
corkscrew up... and fly us over the top of Mt Erebus. The reason we
took the Airbus, which is Australian, is because the Australian
government apparently owes the US Antarctica Program. In October the
USAP flew someone who was injured from one of the Aussie bases back
home to get medical help so this is the way they repay the program..
with first class flights!
Ok, I think thats it for now. Ill try to post more pictures on Flickr
Adios for now
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
AGAP -- Finito!
Christmas Morning
Day after Christmas!
Middle of nowhere... Literally
They work, I play
Storm on New Years Day! White out!
Running at 4000m plus is frickin hard
Last night we made it back to McMurdo after a 3 hour flight on a
LC-130 Hercules... it sucked. It has been quite warm here in McMurdo
lately so the sea ice is starting to break up quite a bit. The ride
back from the air field was quite interesting... as we drove in the
Terra Bus through ponds. I guess its a good thing this bus with its
huge wheels can float :)
For now all I will be doing is sitting around until Friday when we hop
on another flight to head back to Christchurch, New Zealand.
**There is a possibility that I will be able to join in on another
project here and go up onto Mt Erebus :) I wont go to the top but I
think they said we'd go more than 9,000ft up --> which is more than
3,000ft lower than AGAP camp
AGAP: We finished it all! In the end we did a total of 26 missions --
10 services and 16 brand new installs. We worked double shifts for the
most part which meant we installed 4 stations per day sometimes. We
started one week late and were going to finish ahead of schedule but
then we got weathered in for 4 days. On the last and final day to fly
we were somehow able to finish all the stations. The final mission I
was on took 13 hours since we had to fly so far.
The camp location was quite interesting. There wasnt much to do other
than fly, eat and sleep. This is the most remote camp on the planet
and Im glad to finally be warm again. I would say the average
temperature was between -25 to -30 C the entire time. Winds were
usually calm but when they did pick up from bad weather I had no
desire to go outside. For most of the stations I worked on thankfully
the wind was almost non existent making it easy to work. At one place
it was so cold and very little wind so there were ice crystals forming
on top of the snow.
A couple of notes about the pictures:
The picture with the flag in it. Thats the Galley, where we eat. Last
year it was installed on the surface of the snow. After the winter it
got drifted in and had to be dug out. After this winter it will likely
be completely buried.
Doing anything about 12,000 feet is quite difficult. It gets a bit
harder when it is so damn cold.
Thats it for now. If I head up to Mt Erebus Ill be sure to post some
pictures. I still havent finalized my travels for after I leave the
ice but I will figure it out soon enough
Adios
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You dont have to be crazy to work here... but it does help"
Back in civilization
Hello everyone!
Sorry for the big gap in posts... We didnt have internet at camp and I
just got back into McMurdo.
Im tired so Im gonna head to bed. Ill post most tomorrow and put up
pictures of the middle of no where... literally
adios
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How can I be sure I've succeeded, if I can't remember what I was trying to do"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
