Alice is in Antarctica!

Hi all! Thanks for reading this blog; I will try to update it with pictures and stories when I can, but I'm not too sure of my schedule yet for the time down here, so posting may be sporadic. Michael may also post for me, and if you have any questions for me please send them to either him or me at: michael.e.rhodes@colorado.edu or alice.duvivier@colorado.edu

I arrived safely in Christchurch, New Zealand after a bit of travel delays from Auckland. All in all things went pretty smoothly and I arrived New Years Eve at about 8pm. I went in search of food and then went back to the hotel where I was out like a light. I didn't make it to anywhere near New Year's.

The next morning I woke up early and went walking through the Botanic Gardens and city. I was surprised to see how much of Christchurch is still in rubble following the large earthquake last February. The whole city center is still closed, but even outside of the closed area there are buildings with broken windows, collapsed walls, and in some cases rubble in the streets still. I knew the city center was hard hit, but I wasn't expecting it to be so much like a ghost town (it was a holiday too, so that helped the eerieness, I'm sure). Christchurch has many lovely black stone buildings, and so many of their roofs, walls, etc. are in such bad shape. By far the churches appeared the worst hit, though many modern buildings were also in bad shape.

Finally New Years Day afternoon all the Antarctic travelers were picked up from our hotel, taken to the clothing issue center, and then prepared for our flight that evening. The flight was delayed about an hour, but that was nothing compared to what would have been worse: a boomerang flight. This is when the flight in a C-17 or C-130 takes off from Christchurch flies the 4-5 hours down towards the ice, but then due to changed weather conditions has to turn around and fly back to Christchurch. Sitting on the C-17 (which has a shorter flight) was not particularly comfortable since we were in jump seats along the sides and dressed in our emergency weather gear: heavy down parka, snow pants, white bunny boots, hat, gloves, googles. Spending 10 hours on a flight only to turn around is not my idea of fun, so I'm thankful for our pilot who did a great job getting us in and for the weather that was clear and beautiful when we arrived.

When we touched down you could see many of the surrounding mountains and islands: White Island, Black Island, Mount Discovery, Mount Erebus, etc. We got taken in to the McMurdo Station where we settled into our rooms, got breakfast, and have the morning to relax and get settled. This afternoon we have a briefing and learn more about the next few days of orientation for us newbies to the Ice. It's been sunny and pretty, a bit breezy, and cool, but not frigid. At least we don't have to walk around base in our heavy coats (Big Red) all the time now that we're on base.