No. 6

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I'm finally picking this blog up after a pretty lamentable "start" and quasi-immediate stop 2 years ago.... I'm on my way down to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and I've decided to honor a couple of my friends' requests and keep a journal while I'm down there. This will be my 6th season on the "Ice", as it's called, and my 3rd season working for my current employer, UNAVCO. My job is, in a nutshell, to assist scientists in collecting GPS data and LiDAR data (think 3D images). I'll be down there for 3 months! But first, I must travel from Boulder, Colorado, my lovely abode in the Rocky Mountains, to New Zealand, where I'll board a military plane and hop down to McMurdo Station....

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After an eventful (and not in the good way) set of flights, I’ve finally crossed the Pacific and made my way to Christchurch, New Zealand. I’m on my way south to Antarctica, and if the weather down there holds clears, I should be boarding a military cargo plane (a C17) on Friday Tuesday that will carry me to McMurdo Station, where I’ll spend the next 3 months helping scientists collect GPS data and 3D scans of various landforms. (It’s now Sunday, and after a couple of 5am cancellations, I’m hoping Tuesday really is the day.)


Christchurch is one of my favorite towns in the world. A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that it’s that last oasis of wonderful “real world” things like real food and trees and culture and everything before I head south, and again my reintroduction to those things when I get back. But I think most of my love affair with this part of the world can be attributed to the fantastic Kiwi culture. For what is there not to love about New Zealand and New Zealanders?


Here are a few of my favorite things in and around Christchurch… Though the list is far from complete!

The wonderfully expansive Arts Centre, home to a bazillion galleries
featuring local artists. Paintings, weaving, sculpture, movies,
jewelry - it's all here, in an old British college campus.

Beaches, the ocean, and random art on the beaches. This
piece was entitled "No. 993".

My final communion with trees...

The wonderfully accessible botanical gardens, just a 3 minute walk
from the Arts Centre. Pure heaven in here, I tell ya....

The small, hip port town of Lyttleton, situated in this ancient caldera.
Great hikes are to be found all around the caldera rim.

Flat whites at C1 Cafe. Freaking awesome.
I dream of these all year round.