It was a long flight, but I made it to Kiwi country yesterday. An interesting paperwork issue delayed the Denver to LA flight (I've never seen a pilot fired up, let alone come into the cabin and get on the PA to apologize to the passengers and authorize free drinks for everybody over 21) but we made it to LA just in time to catch the flight to Auckland. The Jet lag hasn't been too bad so far. Though, I was thinking about it and if you throw out the international date line, the difference from Minnesota is only 6 hours right now.
The weather in Chrustchurch has been great! Sunny and 60 with a breeze. I spent part of yesterday and most of today walking around seeing the city. There's a lot of evidence of the February earthquake, whether it clearly damaged buildings,
The shuttle driver from the airport was telling us about the day of the earthquake. He said after the quake, lines at gas stations and McDonald's were the longest he had ever seen. His explanation was "everybody wanted a Big Mac and a big shake".
ECW issue was this morning as consisted of trying everything on and giving back anything we didn't think we'd need or didn't want, other than the required gear, and getting the ice flight manifests. My check in is at 0500 with an anticipated flight time of 0700. Two separate flights go out tomorrow and while drawing short straw on the flight time, it means flying on "Skippy" the Airbus instead of a C-17. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures of McMurdo on the approach in.
As long as we don't boomerang due to weather, I should be on the ice by mid afternoon tomorrow.
Next Stop: Antarctica
The weather in Chrustchurch has been great! Sunny and 60 with a breeze. I spent part of yesterday and most of today walking around seeing the city. There's a lot of evidence of the February earthquake, whether it clearly damaged buildings,
buildings being torn down,
or steeples in the wrong place.
But, from what I've seen and heard, this sign is very indicative of the attitude the city has:
The shuttle driver from the airport was telling us about the day of the earthquake. He said after the quake, lines at gas stations and McDonald's were the longest he had ever seen. His explanation was "everybody wanted a Big Mac and a big shake".
ECW issue was this morning as consisted of trying everything on and giving back anything we didn't think we'd need or didn't want, other than the required gear, and getting the ice flight manifests. My check in is at 0500 with an anticipated flight time of 0700. Two separate flights go out tomorrow and while drawing short straw on the flight time, it means flying on "Skippy" the Airbus instead of a C-17. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures of McMurdo on the approach in.
As long as we don't boomerang due to weather, I should be on the ice by mid afternoon tomorrow.
Next Stop: Antarctica
Sharing your adventure thru this blog is the next best thing to being there ourselves. No,no, wait... this is better b/c we don't actually have to BE in Antartica, LOL.
ReplyDeleteShared your blog address with several people, all of whom thought you've got a great adventure ahead. Thanks for writing this.
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