Home Sweet Home.

I have been so terrible at writing since I left the Ice! New Zealand was an absolutely incredible experience and I just wanted to enjoy my time there, without worrying about my cyber-life. :) 

I spent 5 days by myself on the South Island, which was a wonderful time of relaxation and rejuvenation. I stayed with a wonderful family who was so gracious to me, feeding me fresh veggies from their garden (I think I almost squealed when she set fresh cucumbers down on the table!) and driving me to the city center to catch my Arthur's Pass shuttle when I looked at the wrong bus timetable. 

I had some great conversations with random people. I spent two hours on a wharf in Akaroa talking to a "pom" (the Kiwi term for British people) about life and travel and currency...? I talked to a tiny Kiwi woman at a bus stop about the devastation from the 2011 earthquakes. My favorite conversation though was when I sat next to two highly entertaining Kiwis on the flight from Christchurch to Auckland. They were so excited to go to the System of a Down concert in Auckland that night, invited me to go drinking with them before the concert, and were delighted with the fact that I went to Antarctica and insisted that I show them all my photos. Also, they bought me a Diet Pepsi. I liked them a lot.

Auckland was wonderful as well, mostly because I got to see people I hold very dear to my heart! Mike and I spent our week on the North Island with Brooke & Travis Scott, and their adorable little girls. For the past three years, Brooke and Travis have been working towards establishing a church in central Auckland. It was wonderful to talk to them about their experiences ministering in a different country to a different culture -- especially in a city where prostitution and abortion are both legal. We are so excited about what God is doing in them and in their community. We even got the chance to go to a Sunday service and chat with some of the members of their church; it was so encouraging to see their ministry in action and to meet some of the cool people that go to there. Brooke and Travis are pretty stellar people, and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. (Mike really liked it because Travis also loves Lord of the Rings and allowed encouraged Mike to watch all three EXTENDED versions while we were there.) I was dying to get home by the end of the trip, but I couldn't help but shed some tears when saying goodbye to Brooke, who has been a huge part of my life. I am so thankful for her. 

I think my eagerness to get home cursed my long flight from Auckland to L.A., however. It was bumpy -- really bumpy, to the point where I couldn't even fall asleep because I was practically jumping up and down in my seat. Also, tuna salad was an option for our in-flight meal. I'd like to meet whoever came up with that idea, given that tuna reeks and that the plane is full of recycled air. I was already having trouble sleeping, and the tuna burps/coughs from the woman behind me didn't help. So, I arrived in L.A. a zombie, had a super short 6-hour layover in Cali, and...

....now I'm in Denver, with my husband who is sitting on the couch, shirtless, trying to convince me that I would like Celebrity Death Match while wearing a blanket as a cape.

Sounds like home.

30° Below.

Through a series of unfortunate events, I have now traveled to one of the most unique places on this planet.

On Monday, I was invited to go to Happy Camper, which is an overnight camping trip where you learn winter survival skills (i.e. what to do in a white-out). Happy Camper was to be held Tuesday and Wednesday, so I would have missed 2 days of work. That was my legitimate reason for not wanting to go. My silly, girlish reasons were that I did not want to have to sleep in a dug-out snow cave and I did not want to have to pee in a bucket for 24 hours.

So, I did not go to Happy Camper. (Darn).

On Wednesday morning, I woke up abnormally early. I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to just move on with the day and grab breakfast. I ran into the gal who schedules "sleigh rides" to the Pole, and she mentioned that someone *might* be dropping from the flight, and that I *might* be able to go *if* said person *actually* dropped. But she told me to have my ECW gear on hand just in case.

At 7:20, about 25 minutes before passenger transport for the sleigh ride, I got a call telling me to GO GO GO. I made the flight! So I threw on my ECW gear, ran/hobbled up to the transport building, and was on my way!

So then I flew to Pole. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

Our flight to Pole was 3 hours long on an LC-130, covering about 840 miles. The plane itself was delivering fuel to the Pole, and about 30 of us just went along for the ride!

Once we landed, we had 30 minutes on the ground. It was a whirlwind. Because there are actually two "poles" to go see: the Ceremonial Pole (mostly for photo opportunities) and the Geographical Pole (the actual Pole, which moves about 33 feet per year due to shifting ice). So we clicked away at one pole, hobbled over to the next pole, clicked away again, hobbled inside, used the bathroom, and then had to get right back on the plane! It was -30°, so quite frankly I was very excited to be on a nice warm plane again. My nose hairs had frozen and I seriously felt like I had wads of boogers hanging out. Gross, I know, but seriously. That's what it felt like.

Ceremonial Pole

Geographical Pole: Every direction points north!



Tebowing in every time zone. I only did this for you, Mike.



Standing on 9,000 feet of ice!

Pole marker. A new one is crafted every year.

 
I also got to sit in the cockpit during take-off on the way back to McMurdo. It was an amazing experience!

 

How do they keep all these gauges straight?!

Also, the discovery of the South Pole has a really interesting story to it. For the factual version, go to this website: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/amundsen/alexander-text. For the comical/explicit version, go to this one: http://vimeo.com/35084075. :)

Peace, Love, & BottomOfTheWorld.

Castle Rock.

I've been staring at the screen for 5 minutes, trying to come up with a way to explain how beautiful, incredible, awesome, and wonderful my hike out to Castle Rock was today. Some things are just better left unsaid, so I'll let the photos do the talking.

Trailhead

An "apple" shelter along the trail, for safety during a storm.



Red flags that mark the road

Megan & I. I did, in fact, carry a snowboard on my back for 6-miles, just so that I could go down one hill.

Erebus & Castle Rock from afar.



Castle Rock & the wonderful Antarctic sunshine.

Megan & me on top of Castle Rock.

I could not get over the scenery!

Icebergs.

Open water.

On the way back down.

Snowboarding! In Antarctica! In Jeans! :)

Happy girl :)

Hands down, one of the best days ever. Hiking is absolutely one of the greatest sources of joy and humility for me; I love to take in the Lord's creation, and it reminds me of how small I am compared to his greatness.

Peace, Love, & SnowboardingInJeans.

Robert Falcon Scott.

I was randomly invited to go ride bikes out to Hut Point this evening, which was awesome because a) I hadn't ridden a bike in awhile, and b) Discovery Hut was open for tour!

Discovery Hut was built in 1902 by Robert Falcon Scott, who I would like to meet just so I can tell him that his name rocks.

Anyway, the hut was built on the Discovery Expedition as a storage facility and laboratory. It was never used as sleeping quarters, because it is extremely drafty and very cold inside. There is a main storage area, a kitchen, a laboratory, and a slaughterhouse with the carcasses of 2 lambs and 2 penguins. Nope, not kidding. There is also a handful of poor frozen seal carcasses, blubber and all. They definitely don't smell that great, but given that they have been there for awhile, it could be much worse! Interestingly, they used the lab for gravitational experiments -- they thought that being on the bottom of the planet would cause gravity to behave in a different way. (It doesn't, in case you were wondering. If you fall on a bike, you still fall down, and it still hurts.)

I only had my little pocket Canon on me, so I didn't get the greatest quality pictures, but they are still pretty neat. I'm excited to go back with my big camera and get some more shots. The lighting was awesome in the hut, and it shifted like crazy! (I did do some photo editing for fun!)

Courvoisier.

Yep. Seals.

There is still seal in that pot!

  

Peace, Love, & Insulation :)

Dude, We're Here.

I've been sitting here staring at the screen for the past 10 minutes, not knowing where to start! The past 48 hours have been so new and so exciting -- I'm not sure how to verbalize everything that's happened because it's been such a whirlwind.

Our original C-17 flight from Christchurch to McMurdo was delayed 24 hours because of fog on the ice runway. The flight that had gone out the night before us ended up boomeranging -- aka, got all the way to the station, circled around, and then decided conditions weren't safe to land and flew all the way back to Christchurch. After our flight got delayed, I was really worried that the same thing would happen to us, since this whole fog issue seemed to be going on for days. I heard about a smaller C-130 that was flying out about 8 hours before the C-17 was, and decided I was going to try to weasel my way onto that flight so that I could get there sooner! (C-130's land in pretty much any condition). So Phillip the firefighter, my travel buddy, and I hauled all our stuff out to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) in the hopes of getting onto the flight. Even if we didn't make it on, we figured we'd just go ahead and get our gear issued so that we wouldn't have to do it later.

Once we got there, we were told that there was a slim chance we'd get on, simply because of weight. But about halfway through my gear issue, someone poked their head in and said, "Alright, you're leaving in 40 minutes!" So, we threw on our ECW (extreme cold weather) gear and boarded! It was really interesting flying in a military plane -- it's not quite as cushy as a commerical flight, what with the noise-reducing earplugs you have to wear and the cargo nets you have to sit on. But, I did get to go up into the cockpit which was pretty awesome.

Once we landed, a shuttle took us into town, which is about a 40-minute drive. About halfway there, we pulled over because there were 2 Adelie penguins right next to the road! They were SO CUTE. And absolutely hilarious. Emperor penguins are majestic, but they just kind of stand there. Adelies are wild and crazy and run around and have a ton of personality. They were awesome.

So now I'm settling into my surroundings, trying to get acquainted with the environment and the station! This post is getting long, so I'll be heading out, but check back for updates!

Peace, love & penguins!!

Christchurch.

Hello from Christchurch, New Zealand!
I'll have to keep this post quick because I'm using the free internet that I technically should be paying for. :)

My flight(s) to New Zealand went as well as they possibly could have gone, which was a huge blessing. No major delays and very smooth rides. I slept EIGHT hours on the one from L.A. to Auckland, which is amazing, given that I wake up at the smallest noise (or aftershock, which is what I woke up to in Christchurch this morning!).

I absolutely love New Zealand -- Kiwis are great people. I was called "dear" like ten times today, and everyone seems so chipper, saying "cheers" all the time. I love it! Also, their coffee is amazing.

This photo was this afternoon at the Botanic Gardens near the city center. The hydrangea were beautiful! Enjoy the photo because it took like 10 minutes to load on this computer. :)

Peace, love & Kiwis!