The End of the Adventure

I am on Air New Zealand flight 161 heading directly home from Christchurch to Perth, and suffering almost immediate anticlimax at the end of an amazing adventure.  Tonight I will be sleeping in my own bed, unbelievably last night I was sleeping on the ship! It is always a wrench saying goodbye to people you have met on trips, and this was a very special group in many ways, very easy to get along with.  The connections I made particularly with the wonderful staff I hope to consolidate, and I feel some of them are destined to become good friends! 

I will shortly update the blog with more detail and add the pictures, so watch this space!

It is a privilege to visit any part of Antarctica, but this is the part very few people get to visit.  Put Antarctica on the Bucket List!

Snares Cruising..or not!

Yet another day's sail towards the final stop on this epic adventure, the Snares islands, and people are definitely going stir crazy again!  The seas have been relatively calm, and enabled many to venture outside for bird photography and some fresh air. We missed the Snares on the way down due to the excessive turbulence, and it was no guarantee that the zodiac cruising would go ahead.

However at 0630 we got the wake up call to man the zodiacs for a pre-breakfast cruise along the rugged muscovite granite rocks which are the Snares. At least, most of us heard the call.  I didn't!  So a very disappointed geologist was left to forlornly watch the zodiacs cruise along the shoreline, looking for the endemic Snares crested penguins, whilst she practiced her bird photography on the wheeling   Albatross and sooty shearwaters (I did mention bird nerd!).

Highlight of the day as we left the shelter of the Snares to head home to the port of Bluff were a pod of around six orcas or killer whales swimming right alongside the ship, weaving under and across and playing with us for around an hour or so!  Makes everything worth it!

Campbell Island and the World's Loneliest Tree

               

You cannot imagine how glad 50-odd stir-crazy people sailing one of the older ladies of Russian research vessels were after reaching the shelter of Perseverance Harbour on Campbell Island, one of the World Heritage listed New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands.  Apart from many, many trips up and down stairs, there is really nowhere to go to get some exercise to burn off the calories delivered to us every day by the two superb chefs on the vessel! So the prospect of either a 12km “Long Walk” or a 5km “Short Walk” on the island was appealing to just about everyone, including the Russian staff.

There is a very well-constructed boardwalk for the Short Walk which leads up to the nesting site of the southern Royal Albatross on the western side of the island. However, it is mostly uphill, and the steps have quite a high rise.  A challenge for those with Bad Knees, but gotta say mine held up really well – a bit stiff from using muscles that haven’t been used in a while, but overall I am excited about the very possibility that most of my knee issues will become a thing of the past.

Prevailing easterly winds has meant the island has been shrouded in fog and light rain for most of the day.  Up in the hills, the endemic “megaherbs” are sight to be seen (more about them later) and also the nests of the Albatross.

A couple of hours resting in the tussock grass waiting for the albatross to start doing something (they have been described as being like teenagers, sleeping until around noon then starting to move after that!) did not alter the wetness factor, but it was still fun.  After waiting for around 4 hours, I moved my stiff muscles out of the tussock grass for a short meander back up the hill to the end of the boardwalk to warm up the muscles for the tricky descent down.  Tricky because it is much harder on knees going downhill than uphill, and combined with tiredness and sore muscles, could have represented a recipe for disaster!

Safely back on the ship, a hilarious auction in the bar for the Last Ocean organisation, which helps to monitor and hopefully eventually prevent the over-fishing of the Antarctic toothfish, was brilliantly handled by Lloyd.  I was very glad that my hand-knitted silk scarf went for $160, and that Catherine eventually ended up with it, as she had her eyes on it from the start.  As it was a gift from Wiebke, I have now undertaken to make her one as well.

A great Red Wine dinner with Cath, Nigel, Scott, Lloyd and Wiebke – they have been fantastic staff, great fun to be around, and hopefully we have all made the connections to become friends.  They know there is Open House in Perth for them!

Today an early morning zodiac cruise in the mist eventually led us to Camp Cove, where apart from a very stroppy sea lion, there grows the “Loneliest Tree in the World”, a spruce,  which during the time the island was “colonised” regularly had its top lopped off – probably for a Christmas tree!!

We are sailing, we are sailing..

               

…stormy waters, passing high clouds… I can guarantee Rod Stewart has probably never, ever experienced the kinds of seas we have been as we continue our travels north through the Southern Ocean towards our final landing stop, Campbell Island.

Most people have had their sea legs for a while – there are still a few who haven’t.  There have been numerous discussions on the merits of everyone’s particular choice of anti-seasickness medication.  It appears the majority on this ship have opted for the Scopolamine patches, with varying degrees of success.  My choice of Stugeron tablets has worked brilliantly for me on my past two trips to Antarctica, and has continued to do so on this trip.  The exception of course is the first night’s diabolical sail where the ship rattled and rolled everyone out of their bunks and into the toilets!

We are a couple of days away from Campbell Island, so everyone is busily going through their photos in preparation of the wonderful audiovisual presentation which Scott D will be putting together.  He blew us all away with his hastily put together presentation of some of his work – it is rare to find a photographer equally at home with wildlife, landscapes and portraits – every one of his photos tells a story - a true photojournalist!

Just to give some perspective on the very changeable weather down here – apparently in August, the annual pack ice which abounds at the top of the Ross Sea, usually making life difficult for any ships trying to break through to get down to McMurdo Station, was at its greatest extent in living memory.  A few months later, in January, the Akademik Shokalskiy was able to sail straight down into the Ross Sea with no problems (there was pack ice but very minimal) and even go further than any other ship by sailing right around to Scott Base. 

We have seen the weather change dramatically in a matter of a few minutes.  Life is never boring if you are a weather nerd in Antarctica!

From Holding Patterns to Ice Cruising

               

The weather has been teasing us the last couple of days.  Making our way back up north, hugged into the west coast of the Ross Sea (well it is west if we are travelling north!) along the Borchgrevink Coast, we aimed for and missed Coulman Island, Possession Islands, Cape Hallett, and the biggest blow, Cape Adare and Borchgrevink’s Hut.

It just hasn’t been safe enough to make any landings anywhere, due to either katabatic winds, excessive swell on the seas, too much ice on shore, a steep beach.  Frustrating and disappointing for everyone, as several times we went into a holding pattern at a location, hoping that with time the weather would improve and allow a landing.  In desperation, early morning and late evening zodiac cruises have been initiated, which simply resulted in frozen people (early morning) or under-exposed photography (late evening).  It is interesting how a few hundred nautical miles north has made a big difference to the lighting at night.  There is now almost a dark period from around 2-4am.

This morning, hopes were high for a landing, quickly dashed with the realisation that within 2 hours lots of ice had started to build up along the shore.  So an ice cruise in the zodiacs was initiated after breakfast, and we saw loads and loads of greasy brash ice with hundreds of Adelie penguins plopping about, either on the ice, in the ice, or porpoising in the water.  We chased a couple of Orcas for a while (Killer Whales) then headed back closer to the ice. 

The highlight for our zodiac was seeing a leopard seal rise straight out of the water and grab a penguin, three times!  We were a bloodthirsty lot in our zodiac!

PreCambrian Ecstasy in Gondwana

               

Finally we get to Terra Nova Bay, the site of some busy base activity.  The Italian Antarctic Base is there, and the (hopefully South) Koreans are busily building a swanky base in the bay next to Gondwana Base, which is unmanned by the Germans with bright orange pods!

The rocks!  The rocks are spectacular!  The rocks are the best example of PreCambrian basement rocks that we have seen!  I have got everyone interested in the volcanic side of things – they are all picking up bits of vesicular basalt and bringing them to me with great excitement to see if they have got it correctly identified!  But these rocks amazed everyone.

Greatly deformed gneisses with big biotite shears, microfaulting and folding, people recognised the granitic origin, even correctly identifying dolerite dykes intruding into the gneiss.  Up on the ridges lots of foliated gneiss weathered into sharp knife-like structures, and plenty of transported glacially and wind eroded rocks. Fascinating!

Even the skuas liked the rocks as they have built their nests there, and as there were a lot of chicks running around, there was plenty of divebombing of invading humans happening.

The afternoon was complete with a zodiac cruise around the icebergs to the edge of the glacier, one of my very favourite things to do.  The highlight was the beautiful emperor penguin standing at attention on an iceberg, very graciously allowing us all to take photos after which he dove into the water.

Back on board, the Gin and Tonic corner of the Bar/Library was temporarily located to the Bar itself due to invasion of computers, and with the hope of a 2am wake up call for a landing at Inexpressible Island in the pipeline, early-ish bed for everyone.

The 2am wakeup call turned into the 7am wakeup call due to the re-arrival of the katabatic winds howling throughout the night, so no landing on Inexpressible Island.  The other name for it should be Underwear Island, as in Regency and Victorian times, the English called all their undergarments “inexpressibles”! I know this for a fact because I have read Georgette Heyer novels!

The Great Katabatic Experience

                               

After staying in a holding pattern around Franklin Island, the katabatic winds prevented us from attempting a safe landing, so off we sailed north to the Drygalski Ice Tongue. 

Wind is a constant feature in Antarctica – many of the rocks show intense weathering from wind erosion, as does my face after I have been outside for any great length of time in the Antarctic cold!  Katabatic winds originate from the Polar Plateau, where the Transantarctic Mountains which split Antarctica into East and West are found.  They form when cold, dense air slides off the icecap under the influence of gravity, and can reach up to 150km/hour!  We certainly felt them coming off the land – one side of the ship was frozen very quickly, with icicles forming on the railings and the portholes.

Those adventurous enough (or foolhardy, depending on how you look at it) to venture outside found themselves hanging onto the railings for fear of being blown across the deck and over the railings on the other side!

Just as quickly as these katabatic winds arrive, they can dissipate, and by the time we reached the Drygalski Ice Tongue (DIT) at around 7am, the sun was out, the sky nearly cloudless and the seas gentle.  A stark contrast to the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS), the DIT represents a tongue of ice protruding into the sea at the termination of a glacier on the coastline.  It is much more rugged looking than the RIS, with lots of bits looking like they are very ready to break off into icebergs.

During the night, the katabatic winds rose again, and although the night’s sleep was good, I could hear the wind howling through the porthole, and in the morning the glass was coated with tiny ice crystals.  An effective way for facial dermabrasion, if I had thought of it earlier!

The Ross Ice Shelf

               

Penguins are very curious birds – one of the Adelies at Cape Bird seemed determined to come back to the ship after our visit – he jumped right out of the water onto the bow of Nigel’s zodiac.  He needed some encouragement to get back into the water, but was not content to stay there, as soon afterwards was seen jumping onto the bow of Mike’s zodiac!  It was the culmination of a great afternoon at Cape Bird, notwithstanding the big swell which had developed just as we were all trying to get into the zodiacs for the return to the ship.  I do believe some people were swamped!

A 2am wakeup call saw most of us up on the bridge (in broad daylight, or so it seemed) to view the immense Ross Ice Shelf.  It is the largest ice shelf in the world, bigger than France, about the size of Texas!  It floats!  The bridge is about 50 feet (20 metres) above sea level - where we first started cruising along, we were slightly above the level of the shelf, and it is very, very flat.  Moving deeper across the shelf, the height of the ice increased so that it was above the height of the ship!  So that means the shelf is up to 350 metres or 1,150 feet thick!!  You can imagine the explorers coming down into the Ross Sea, encountering the ice shelf, sailing for days along its margin trying to find a way through, and finally realising there wasn’t one! 

The captain has marked a new line on his map showing where the current line of the shelf is, which apparently is currently quite different from the original!

The Ross Ice Shelf is simply awesome!

Cape Royds and Cape Bird

               

I had a great night’s sleep last night.  Many of the team did not, as they went out after our busy day at around 10pm to climb Observation Point, the big hill between McMurdo Station and Scott Base.  My knees, which have been going really, really well, told me that it would be pushing it for me to do this particular hike, as it is up a very, very steep incline with switchbacks and plenty of scree to deal with downhill.

Just as well, as everyone apparently had a race up the hill!

During the night we made our way around Ross Island to Cape Royds, which is where Shackleton’s Nimrod Hut is located, as well as the most southern Adelie penguin rookery.  The weather apparently had been a bit dodgy in the “night” with katabatic winds sweeping past, bringing lots of small pieces of brash ice with it.  We had the option of two landings, depending on the weather.  The first, in Black Sands Beach, required a wet landing and a 40 minute hike over the basalt hills to the hut.  The second option was a landing in Back Door Bay, with a 15 minute walk to the hut.  Fortunately we were able to do the latter, and as it had been snowing, there was a light crust of snow on the ground which actually helped with the walking.

More about Shackleton’s Hut later, the landing was amazing, and highlighted at the end by a couple of huge leopard seals who decided to laze about on a small iceberg in the bay.

Immediately after lunch we set off for Cape Bird, the site of 3 large Adelie penguin rookeries.  We have just got back from this landing, which in itself was a challenge, with quite a swell onto the beach covered by lots of ice fragments.  It was cool to walk among the penguins, who have plenty of large chicks at the moment.

It will be hard to beat this, but I am sure the team are working on it!  Hard to believe we are only half way through the trip!

Science is alive and well in Antarctica

               

Today on the last day of January 2014, we snuck into the US Antarctic Base McMurdo Station, just before the ship arrived to resupply/redeploy.  The timing was fortunate, and we were all very excited to catch a glimpse of life on this gigantic science station.  The ice this year is so lean that they have been having a few problems with the ice runway!

We saw the Science Laboratory, National Science Foundation Chalet, with all the flags and the bust of Byrd outside, the Chapel of the Snows, the General Store (with ATM), the MacOps centre where the call centre, air traffic management and weather station are located, and finally coffee and yummy cookies in the Coffee House, which was the original building at the station and is an old aircraft half cylinder galvanised iron building (can’t remember what they are called!)

After lunch back on the ship we sailed on round Observation Point to the New Zealand Antarctic Station at Scott Base.  This is significant!  Apparently this is the first time in anyone’s knowledge that a ship has been able to sail into Scott Base.  Usually the ice is so packed in, the original plan was to zodiac back to the McMurdo landing, and drive over to the base.  We believe the Akademik Shokalskiy has sailed further south now than any other ship in memory!

Scott Base is like the small boutique station compared to the huge metropolis of McMurdo.  They all utilise each other’s services, but they are polar opposites (pun intended) as to how they operate.  McM is very regimented, Scott Base very typically laid back.

A great day was completed with a quick visit back to McMurdo to visit the currently-undergoing-restoration Scott’s Discovery Hut at Hut Point.  It looks just like an Australian outback house with the verandah surrounding all sides – in fact it did originally come from Australia.

Fortunately they will be keeping the wood a natural colour.  Scott Base buildings are all painted a very bright hospital green – must have had a sale on paint!  However they did redeem themselves by providing yummy scones for us for afternoon tea!

The Heroic Age - far, far South

Today we landed on the Antarctic continent – well Ross Island actually, but it is of course attached to the main land mass by the Ross Ice Shelf.  This Ice Shelf should be renamed the “Claytons” Ice Shelf, because for the first time in 20 years, a ship has been able to traverse the Ross Sea down to McMurdo Sound without having to break through miles and miles of pack ice!

4am wake up call, and we were travelling down the gangway to the zodiacs by 5am.  We were at Cape Evans, the site of Scott’s Hut for the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition 1910-1913, which saw Robert Falcon Scott attempt to be the first to the South Pole, only to arrive and find the Norwegian Amundsen had beaten them to it.  Of course we all know the story how Ross and his 3 companions never made it back.  

The hut has undergone remarkable restoration, and is situated on the shoreline at Cape Evans, beneath the smouldering volcano Mt Erebus.  It was smoking today!  The hut looks like Scott and his men left for a day’s outing and meant to return!  There are approximately 8,500 artifacts in the main building and annexe where the ponies were kept.  I particularly liked the science laboratory and the dark room, and the tins of canned rhubarb!  The layout of the hut was so naval British!

This afternoon we travelled to the furthest point south that we can go, which is probably the furthest south most people on the ship have ever been, and will never repeat again!  We all spent hours up on the bridge photographing three emperor penguins on the ice!

Tomorrow is a big day – we get to visit the US Antarctic Station McMurdo, the New Zealand Antarctic station Davis, and go visit Scott’s Discovery Hut!  In the words of Nathan the Expedition leader – “Tomorrow will be a logistical nightmare!”  Can’t wait!

Stir Crazy

Five and half days’ sailing, and everyone is getting a bit toey.  We want to land!  However, the current easterly wind pattern has prevented us from landing at any of the Ross Sea sites on the way down to Ross Island and the Ice shelf, but there is a very strong possibility we will catch them on the way back up.  

Temperatures have certainly dropped, both inside and outside the ship.  A consistent series of lectures and movies has kept everyone entertained.  The highlight for many (so I have been told) was a musical evening presented by Wiebke (pronounced Vebka) and Felicity on guitar, with those old standbies, sugar and lentil-in-a-bottle percussion.  All sorts of old favourites were brought out for a rendition, like Country Roads (with everyone), True Colours, Knights in White Satin, several of Wiebke’s excellent originals, and Flick channeling Joni Mitchell with Big Yellow Taxi, and Fleetwood Mac/Eva Cassidy with Songbird.  The chef turns out to be a drummer so was also assisting with the biscuit barrel drum.

The word is get as much sleep as you can, when you can, because time becomes nothing down here in the land of no night, so I will be expecting to be making several landings around 2am!

Several history lectures later, it has become very clear to be why Amundsen made it to the South Pole and returned successfully, and why Robert Falcon Scott didn’t!!

Antarctica - we are on our way

We have passed into the Antarctic Circle – 65 degrees latitude – the furthest south I have ever been.  I celebrated this auspicious occasion with champagne up on Deck 6, with Scott D,  and with Alla and Scott S!  A special moment indeed watching the first icebergs float past as we toast them with bubbles.

For the first time in years, the ice shelf guarding the entrance to the Ross Sea is (temporarily) gone, and we have the best opportunity to make several landings which normally would be impossible – Cape Adare, Cape Royds, and others along the coast, following a schedule which is entirely flexible and we won’t know what we can do or when we can do it until almost the last minute!  We know we will be visiting Davis Station (the NZ station), hopefully McMurdo itself (we have to drive through it to get to Scott Station), Scott’s Hut, Shackleton’s Hut, but when and which order is still to be determined.

I am looking forward to seeing my first ever colony of Emperor penguins, although after Lloyd Davis’ lecture today, I will be looking at them from a different point of view!  Whoever would have thought penguins were such sexual deviants!!

Australia Day and High Tea on the High Seas

It has been almost a dream trip sailing down to Antarctica and the Ross Sea from Macquarie Island.  In fact, apparently it has been one of the fastest trips ever!  The seas have been kind – probably making up for the diabolical first night and day of the trip out of Bluff!!

It is Australia Day – we won’t be getting fireworks this year!  However, we did get green and yellow balloons and streamers in the bar, little Australian flags as bunting, a sleep in, brunch, and High Tea on the High Seas in the afternoon!  Not a bad way to spend Australia Day.

The culmination was a quiz on Aussie slag in the bar/library.  We all had teams and got points or lost points depending on how many Australians were in the team.  My team had just me as the lone Aussie, but we had Scott D who came up with the winning team name – Vegemighties – and we had the other Scott and Alla, who came up with the most amusing alternative for a sheep shagger – one who has a close affinity with wool.  All up, the mighty Vegemighties won the quiz and shared the two bottles of house red very quickly to the sound of the looped CD of Advance Australia Fair!

Which was why we needed the two bottles!

Macca Mayhem

We are finally anchored at Macquarie Island, fondly known as “Macca” (of course, Australians have to shorten everything!), after a fairly smooth transit down from the Auckland Islands – approx. a day’s sailing.  Maybe it seems smooth because we are all getting our sea legs!  A couple of lectures down now, they appear to have gone down well, not too technical, and people are asking questions!

Another World Heritage site, Macca is the only place on the earth’s surface where mantle rocks are expose.  This is due to the Australian Tectonic Plate being subducted (sucked!) underneath the Pacific plate, and in the process a rift closed which extruded molten rock from the upper mantle to the surface.  The rocks form what is called an “ophiolite” sequence.  The island is still rising at the rate of slightly less than 1mm per year!

Today we went zodiac cruising down at Lusitania Bay (Lucy!!).  You cannot land there – in fact there are very few places you are allowed to land, and all of them are in the far north of the island.  Lucy has a large colony of King penguins, also a few Rockhoppers, and a few of the endemic penguins to Macquarie Island, the Royal penguin.

Also saw both the Northern and Southern Giant Petrel, black-browed albatross, fairy prion and light-mantled sooty albatross (told you I am becoming a bird nerd!)

In the early days, sealers exterminated the island’s population of fur seals, and nearly did the same to the elephant seals!  Then in 1870, gangs came to exploit the penguin colonies for oil.  The remains of some of the large digesters in which they boiled the penguins can still be seen at Lusitania Bay, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of penguins!  I’d say that’s karma!

Brian and Grant said today was the best day ever!

Enderby Island Sojourn

I cannot think of any reason why anyone would have wanted to settle in the Auckland Islands, but a few attempts were made in the north at Enderby Island.  They all failed!  The attempt to start up a whaling station by a 19^th century dodgy entrepreneur was foiled by poor soil conditions, and more importantly, by the relentless blustery weather!

The Auckland Islands are the dissected remains of two volcanoes.  Enderby Island is the most northern part of the group, and the only place where you can land.  There is evidence of the pyroclastic sediments, pillow basalts and extensive basalt lava flows.  The southern cliffs are stunning columnar basalt, and were the site of numerous shipwrecks in the 19^th century, probably because the islands had been plotted on the maritime charts some 35 miles away from their actual position!

The landing site at Sandy Bay is the site of a large colony of very aggressive Hooker’s Sea Lions, currently the most endangered of the 5 species of sea lion in the world.  There is a brilliant boardwalk which runs right across the island, where you can see the amazing and unusual plants that are endemic to the islands.  Of course, the day when we go it is raining, and the gusts of wind so strong that they were blowing the little people among us off the path!  Not a great idea when the path runs by the cliffs!

Also seen on our visit – the solitary yellow-eyed penguin, wandering albatross, southern royal albatross, red-crowned parakeet, New Zealand pipit, Auckland Island shag, brown teal, tomtit, skua, giant northern petrel, black-backed gull, red-billed gull, bellbird and tui.

I am becoming a bird nerd!

Evacuation on the High Seas

The injury list from the night of the Big Seas did not stop at bruises and dislocated shoulders!  Unfortunately, one of the passengers passed out on the beach on one of the shore excursions.  Her blood pressure was 60/40 which was dangerously low.  Apparently she had lost a lot of blood the night before – nobody is sure how that occurred, but the general medical consensus was that she needed to be evacuated.  It was fortunate we were at the Auckland Islands, which represented the limit of helicopter flying from New Zealand.

So two helicopters were sent from Invercargill, they took 3 hours to reach Enderby Island in the north of the Auckland group.  We were all sent on shore for another excursion whilst the staff took care of getting Winona and Vernon into the zodiacs with their luggage across to Enderby Island, only a short hop away.  By the time we had all been ferried back to the Shokalskiy by zodiac, they were well away back to Invercargill.

The latest news is that Winona is safely in hospital in Christchurch having tests to work out what went on.  Vernon and Winona, we all are very sad your trip had to end like this, and we hope all will be well.  As promised, I will make sure you get pictures, although I know Ted Cheeseman will already be onto this!

All credit to the Heritage Expeditions staff who managed this very difficult operation with a minimum of fuss and maximum efficiency!

The Boat that Rocked

24 hours of rocking and rolling on the Southern Ocean, making our way through the Roaring Forties, rock-a-bye baby it was most certainly not!  The westerly winds produced waves around 5-6 metres, sometimes more, which made for a very challenging night and day on the journey commencing from the port of Bluff in Invercargill.  We skipped the Snares and headed directly towards the Auckland Islands.  The night was challenging for everyone – just about everything that was not fastened down ended up on the floor, including some people!  A dislocated shoulder, several hits on the head (including myself), stitched on the head, numerous bruises were displayed once the ship had reached safe haven near Enderby Island in the north of the Auckland islands, around 7pm.  I was one of the many hit with a bout of sea-sickness into the bag, and acknowledge that those 24 hours were some of the most unpleasant I have ever experienced.

A good night’s sleep for everyone, staff and passengers, meant that we are all ready for our excursion onto Enderby Island tomorrow, and our first look at the Hooker’s Sea Lions and other marvels waiting for us.

Why anyone thought it was a good idea to try and form a settlement down here is anybody’s guess.  It didn’t last.

Invercargill

 

You do almost feel like you are at the end of the world in Invercargill.  A quaint city that still feels like a town, very quiet, lots of empty shops, but spotlessly clean and very efficient.  Arriving a day early was a very good idea – it was very blustery, not particularly cold, but the wind was strong enough to want to blow you in any other direction except the one in which you want to go.  The streets are like wind tunnels!  I spent all yesterday trying to finish off my lectures – 3 down, 3 to go.

 

 

 

The Kelvin Hotel rises above the rest of the buildings like one of those transformer toys – very blocky, quite old-fashioned but also quite charming in its own way.  Most of the group have arrived now – it has been great to renew friendships with Dean, who I shared a cabin with last trip to Antarctica, and with whom I will share on this trip.  I have been sharing a hotel room with Karen from San Francisco, and that has been fun.  Have caught up with the lovely Scott Davis, delighted he is on the trip, and also Laboun from Saudi Arabia.

 

 

This is my one and only opportunity to send any photos before we embark on the now notorious Akademik Shokalskiy for a month in the Sub-Antarctic islands and the Ross Sea area.  We have been told that the Ross Sea is looking the best it has for around 10 years or so, which should mean we get to do all our landings.

 

Next update hopefully will be from the ship.

 

Ahoy me hearties.

 

I can spot an elephant from 1000 paces!

On the way

Well it is around 1pm in the afternoon and I am repacking for the third time, trying to fit in all the additional things one has to take travelling these days, like several chargers, cords, computer, keyboard, iPhone, iPod, iPad, iPeripherals etc Just been texted by Air New Zealand to say the flight to Christchurch has been delayed 20 minutes – so far so good, even though the connecting time to Invercargill is pretty tight.  It has been quite stressful for all concerned getting ready for this trip on the Akademik Shokalskiy, which as most people now know, was stuck in the ice for 12 days from Xmas Day.  Fortunately she got herself out of the ice and has made very good time back to the port of Bluff in Invercargill, so that our trip can depart as planned on Saturday afternoon.

 

Of course, I invoked Murphy’s Law when I decided to hold off finishing lecture preparation – an attempt to trick fate which backfired, as now I still have no lectures completed yet, although I have pretty much all the information I need – just need to settle down to prepare the appropriate PowerPoint slides.

 

My two beautiful nieces Sally and Kate will be my housekeepers while I am away, earning extra travel money for cleaning and de-cluttering my house!  I am thrilled  as no amount of money will compensate for the great feeling of coming home to a clean and tidy house, which it certainly is not at the moment!

 

So this entry is really to test the system I have set up for sending updates from the field.  Hope it works, as  it is a bit hard to access the Internet from Antarctica, or worse, the middle of the Southern Ocean.

 

Watch this space!