A Warm Welcome to the Coldest Place on Earth

“A Warm Welcome to the Coldest Place on Earth”

 –title stolen from A.Margolin cuz it is awesome (FLYING to and LANDING in McMurdo Station)

At 9:30am on Thursday February 7^th, 2013 we took a shuttle, with all of our baggage, to the Clothing Distribution Center located near the New Zealand airport. Here we gathered our items, checked in and entered “the terminal”.

It was tough getting passed the Greeting Committee.

Our check-in baggage was weighed. Then our carry-on. And then ourselves. Each person has a strict weight limit. If we passed, we got a very official “boarding pass”. It was just a laminated yellow card on a chain reading “Boarding Pass”.

We went through ‘security’ and then loaded on to a bus which drove us to the tarmac that the C-17 Hercules was sitting on.

 

This was probably the most comfortable flight I have ever been on. The seats were bouncy and made of webbed material. We had plenty of leg room and we got TWO sacked lunches with delicious snacks and turkey sandwiches. Toilets were located to the rear and involved climbing up into a shower curtained throne. I didn’t dare take a poo. (GoPro photo credit A. Margolin) The flight was 8 hours. There was a possibility 5 hours in that we may have to turn back if the weather was bad. Luckily, we didn’t have to do that.

Once we landed, the wind and cold bit hard! I thought I could get away with snapping a few photos bare-handed but within 3 minutes my finger tips were frozen. We boarded Ivan the Terra Bus.

Mount Discovery. Panorama photo cred A.Margolin

It was 10pm but we needed to pick up a laundry sack that had our bed sheets in it. We were assigned dorm rooms and given keys. We were all too wired to be tired but around midnight, broad daylight, we forced ourselves to get some sleep.