Saturday, November 1, 2008

The Long Way To Antarctica

The flight down to the ICE (that's what people say when they go to Antartcica) is long. Everybody started from his/her home town very early to first fly to Los Angeles. From Los Angeles we travel to Aukland, the capital of New Zeasland; this flight is 13 hours. Arriving in Aukland at 5:00 AM we take our luggage through customs. To avoid transfering critters and plant seeds from outsite New Zealand, everyone has to clean all shoes and camping gear taht was used outside of New Zealand before entering. Custom agents frequently check boots and camping gear---and if you don't tell them you have dirty gear, or if you forget you have an apple in your backpack---you may be fined $200. Fortunately, all our gear was clean and we had no problems.

From Ausckland we continue to Christchurch, which is on the South Island of New Zealand. The great part of the travel is that it is spring in New Zealand and Christchurch is a very pleasant city with parks and a beautiful Botanical Garden. We stay in Christchurch for two nights to get our EXTREME COLD WEATHER (ECW) gear. In two nights we will be on our way to McMurdo the US station in Anatarctica.

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