We left New Zealand for McMurdo Station in Antarctica today. It took us about 6 hours to fly from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo since fortunately this time we were aboard C-17 US Air Force carrier equipped with four jet engines, which is bigger and faster than the most commonly used for Antarctic transportation, LC-130. As soon as we arrived at McMurdo Station, we attended a briefing/orientation session organized by NSF (National Science Foundation), which took us about 1 hour. We were assigned dorm rooms where we unpacked our personal belongings and gears and got ourselves changed to much lighter outfits (ironically, it was much warmer than where we live - just around the freezing point!) so that we can run down to the dining hall for dinner (we were so hungry!!). This is pretty much everything for today. For the next week or so, we are scheduled to take a couple of training sessions for snow field camp, altitude climatization, radio operation, etc. which will be fun and make us pretty busy.
Kshitija and Joseph before boarding C-17 in New Zealand. All passengers are required to have the cold weather gears with them for the flight. Not surprisingly, it is VERY hot in the summer weather of New Zealand!
We are basically seated in the cargo area with palettized loads. The cabin is so noisy that it is very hard to talk to people even next to you. You want to wear ear plugs during flight.
Joseph and me
View of Antarctica from the C-17 window.
The Air Force crews were so nice to invite us to the cockpit.
Antarctic icebergs
We finally landed on an ice sheet of Antarctica near McMurdo Station.
Me standing near Willy Field runway.
Passengers are transported by either Terra Bus or Delta truck from the runway to McMurdo Station, which takes about 30 min. I will show you Terra Bus and Delta truck later!
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