New Zealand

Well, I'm off the Ice now. If you haven't heard, the PhD didn't work out, so I'm done with Antarctica. It was a great experience though.

The good thing about leaving was that I got to travel New Zealand for a week. We got back to Christchurch at about 9 pm, and I got to see 2 things I hadn't seen in 2 months - darkness and rain. It was a nice change. My first big challenge was the car. They drive on the left side in New Zealand, so I had to learn quickly and in a big city. It wasn't too difficult, but I had to really think about turning into the left lane. And then there's the roundabouts. These things are a little scary. You have to yield to people already in the roundabout then drive around in a circle until your turn comes up. It was good that my first roundabout was in a smaller town, so I could practice before I got back to the big city.

My first stop was Kaikoura, a nice little town about 225 km up the east coast from Christchurch. The drive was really nice and green (another nice change from the Ice). There were sheep everywhere situated in the valleys between large grassy hills. It was all very pastoral. Then I came out of the hills and there was the ocean. New Zealand has the bluest water I've ever seen and the mountains come right down to the water. I went to Kaikoura for a pelagic bird trip. I went out an pretty small boat, which was a little tough on my stomach since the water was a little rough, but it was worth it as I saw my first albatross along with several other sea birds. There was also a New Zealand fur seal colony in town. The next day I was off across the mountains to the west coast. Almost everywhere on the South Island is in the mountains, and the main highways are 2 lanes and very curvy. You definitely had to pay attention to the road, but the scenery made it difficult. On the other side of Lewis Pass, I drove through Buller Gorge, across to Westport, then down to Punakaiki. Punakaiki lies right next to Paparoa National Park and has the Pancake Rocks. The rock formations all along the coast are amazing, but these are really neat because they were laid down in layers and, well, look like pancakes (kind of). And when the swell comes in, the water shoots up through holes and out at the top of the formations.

I stayed in Greymouth, home of Monteith's beer, then headed down the coast to Queenstown that night. The west coast has some spectacular scenery. I stopped in Hokitika to pick up some jade carvings, for which New Zealand is known, then stopped at Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. Both of these glaciers come down steep valleys out of the Southern Alps and are pretty dramatic. I crossed from Westland into Otago and it became much drier and less steep. The Otago region is home to a lot of the wineries and there were also a lot of apple and cherry orchards. I really liked Queenstown. It only has about 7500 people (moderate size by New Zealand standards) but a lively nightlife and plenty of outdoor activities nearby. I think bungy jumping was invented near Queenstown. Anyway, I didn't do much around Queenstown, but it was worth the stop. The next day, I drove to Dunedin, home of New Zealand's Cadbury factory (produces 85% of NZ's chocolate) and Speight's beer (beer is a big thing in NZ). However, I went for the birds (of course). Taiaroa Head is at the very end of the Otago Peninsula and has the only mainland breeding colony of albatross in the world (Royal Albatross). There are also thousands of other seabirds that nest on the cliffs. I hated to do it, but I paid $30 to go see the albatrosses. The colony has about 150 birds in it, but from the observatory I could only see 4 - a bit of a disappointment.

The next day as I left Dunedin headed for Mt. Cook, the weather had turned overcast. After 4 days of sun and 70 degree days, the weather had to turn bad when I was going to see the highest point in Australasia. It was cloudy almost the whole way there, but as I entered the valley leading to the visitor center, the skies parted and the mountains poked their heads out. So, I got some good views of Mt. Cook and the surrounding mountains. Then it was back to Christchurch for the next day's flight - about 27 hours of travel, 19 of those on a plane. It was a great week, but I didn't get to see as much as I had hoped. I guess I'll just have to go back.

Thanksgiving

Sorry it's been a while since the last post. Not much has been going on here besides the usual work and surveys.

However, this week was Thanksgiving. Thursday night, we ate at camp and had a nice dinner of salmon, halibut, steak, corn, asparagus, cheesy bread, and pumpkin pie. Not a bad meal for 2 Coleman stoves and a Coleman oven. I wish I had pictures from camp, but I have gotten them from Steen yet. We even had our turkey decorations and our glass ice skating penguin centerpiece. Then we came into town Friday night because Sascha and I were planning on running in the 5k Turkey Trot. So after a late Friday night (we got to bed at about 4 am), we got up at 8:30 on Saturday to go run. I was running 3 miles before I left, but that was a few months ago and in the warm weather. I checked out the weather before we left and it said that it was 28 degrees, but when we got outside, we realized that there was about a 10-15 mph wind and we needed another layer of clothes. I didn't do too bad for running on snow and ice and finished in about 35 minutes.

That afternoon, we had thanksgiving dinner. They really fix up the galley for this with linens on the table and everything. There was turkey, mashed potatoes, and dressing, of course, but we also had green bean casserole, homemade rolls, salad and fresh vegetables (a luxury down here), and a big dessert table with cream puffs, chocolate cake and chocolate cream pie. Definitely a pretty good meal for Antarctica standards.

That's about it. We have today off, so I will probably just lunge around and watch movies all day, then back to camp tonight. We're winding down with the field work and only have 2 more surveys to do. It's going to be nice to get back to trees, warmer weather, and the comforts of home. It's definitely an amazing place down here, but it will be nice to get home.

My First Time Ice Fishing

So a couple of nights ago, we were all sitting in the kitchen hut after dinner and had just pulled out the freshly baked cookies (thanks Jen) when there was a knock on the door. Isn't it funny how visitors come at the most opportune times? Anyway, it was a couple of the guys that are doing some fish research down here, and they stopped by to ask us if we wanted to go fishing with them. After some hot chocolate and cookies, we went and suited up for a snowmobile ride. Luckily, the fish hut was only about a 5 minute ride from camp. Of course, as soon as we open the door there's a seal using our hole. This wasn't promising, since the fish we were after is the main prey for Weddell seals. But we fished anyway. Now, this was high tech equipment. I was using a Sponge Bob Squarepants rod, while Derek had the Scooby-Doo rod. They get some salt in the reel and don't exactly let out line very well, but when your quarry is about 6 inches long, it doesn't take much. So, our rig consisted of a couple of sinkers at the end of the line, a hook a few inches up with a small chunk of fish and/or a chartreuse grub, then sometimes a glowstick a few inches above that. We would drop it down to the bottom (about 70 ft), then jig it a little, reel it up a few cranks, jig it some more, a few more cranks, so on and so forth until we were back to the surface. So, as I said before, seals equal bad for fishing. We didn't catch what we were going for, but we did catch a few emerald rock cod off the bottom. It wasn't the most rewarding fishing trip, but it was fun. And now I can say I've been fishing in Antarctica.

Elan Says There Aren't Enough Baby Seal Pictures

So here they are.

Beard Progress

I thought I'd start a new thing and show the progress of my beard through my time here in Antarctica. It's kind of the thing to do - grow a beard - and a lot of people that don't normally have one will grow one when they come down here. And it helps keep your face warm. So I'll try to find some pics from the last month to show the progression of hairiness.

#1 - Oct 3, 2007 - About to step off the plane into Antarctica for the first time. 2 days old. (Don't mind my fat face, it's all squished in my balaclava - or maybe it's just fat. Either way, don't mind it.)

#2 - Oct 7, 2007 - Random beard picture #1. 6 days old.

#3 - Oct 21, 2007 - Weather day, random beard picture #2. 20 days old.

#4 - Oct 27, 2007 - Halloween Party. 26 days old.

#5 - Nov 6, 2007 - Random beard picture #3. 36 days old.

I'll try to have another picture in a few days.

There was a slight breeze today

And by slight breeze, I mean 50 mph sustained winds with gusts around 70 mph.

The day started off pretty normal - clear skies, a slight breeze. Kelly and Steen went on a helicopter flight, while Jen, Derek, and I went out to weigh a few pups and tag some adults (Sascha has been in town for 3 days quarantined with the flu). Well, about 10:30 or so, the wind started to pick up, but it still wasn't too bad - probably around 20 mph. We went back to camp to eat lunch and because Derek, Kelly, and Jen were supposed to go on a flight this afternoon, but Kelly called from town and said that the flight was cancelled and a big storm was coming in. We looked out the window to the south and there was a big wall of blowing snow. The winds had really started to pick up, but we went back out in the field to finish up a few odds and ends (and there was a penguin close to camp, but we got there too late). The ride to Turk's Head was pretty bad and visibility had gotten much worse and winds were around 40 mph. After all that driving, it turns out there were no animals to tag, so we decided to go to another spot. On the ride back, we decided that we should head back to camp.

Back at camp, it took 3 of us to put the cover on one snowmobile. The wind would push us around so that you would have to run in order to not fall down. And if you were on the ice, you would just slide along until you fell down or ran into something. Me - I ran into the pisten bully with my shin. And my sunglasses were blown away by a big gust. I felt them go, turned around, and they were nowhere to be seen. We left for town about 5 minutes later, and Jen joked about them blowing across the road in front of us. Not 10 seconds later, I see them in the road 200 yards from where I lost them, 90 degrees from the direction of the wind. I took my foot off the gas and tried to hit the brakes, so as not to run over them, but there are no brakes in a pisten bully. Luckily, they don't go very far when you don't give them gas. So, my sunglasses are safely back on my head and we're safely in town. I've added a video of all the mayhem, but I don't think it will do it justice. As some reference, hurricane force winds are technically at 74 mph and I know we hit at least 72 mph today.

Finally, Penguins!

I finally saw a penguin after being in Antarctica for a month. Yesterday, after eating an early dinner, we drove north on the sea ice to try to get to the sea ice edge and to see the Adelie penguin rookery at Cape Royds. Technically, we're not supposed to use our snowmobiles for anything but work, so we also stopped to look at a few seals along the way. Our first stop was Barne Glacier. You might remember this from my Sea Ice course. Well, yesterday, we actually went up to the glacier and got some pictures and took a little ice off the ground for camp. Nothing like several thousand year old air to add a little something to your drink. Next, was the penguin rookery. We stopped but didn't see anything at first until Kelly pointed out all of the penguins along the top of the rocks. They were all putting on their dances for the females. Every once in a while, a group of 2 or 3 would walk or slide by about 50-100 feet away. But not one...more on that in a little bit. Supposedly the ice edge is just past Cape Royds, and we were expecting to get there and find snow petrels and leopard seals. But no luck. We got to some thinner ice but could still never see the edge. It started to look a little sketchy so we drilled to see how thick the ice was. Turns out it was only about 2 feet thick. If you remember, we need at least 30 inches, so we turned around and headed back. On the way, we stopped again at the rookery, and as we were watching 3 penguins walk by, I looked over and saw one heading straight towards us. I just sat there and watched it as it walked within 5 feet of me like I wasn't even there. Unfortunately, it didn't stop so I only got 1 good picture. And that was about it. Glaciers, penguins, and thin ice. One of Ernest Shackelton's huts is at Cape Royds, but I think we're saving that for another trip.