Nowhere To Go But Up

For anyone who watches The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, this is probably old news. They did a little piece on our wonderful cook, Mike. I thought it was pretty funny.

Here's what I saw at the park today while I was walking the dog.

I wish I had made it home in time to see the leaves on the trees, but just seeing something that used to have leaves was a treat. The weather in Indiana has been incredible. I'm not just saying that because it's not -80F outside, but because it really is unseasonably warm. Maybe it's mother nature giving me an early Christmas gift or just global warming, but the weather here has been magnificent. It won't last though. It was overcast in the afternoon with some rain sprinkling and there is rumor of snow before the weekend.

I learned some interesting things about New Zealand while I was there. Here are just a few:

A) Beautiful beaches on a south Pacific island do not equate to warm waters. The temperature of the water off the coast of the southern part of the south island is frigid in the spring time.

B) In most public toilets, you have two options for flushing: full and half. This is indicated by a white button and a white button with some black on it. I sort of assumed that the white w/black indicated that you should use that button if you created a monster, but that's the button for the half flush....I think.

C) More about the bathrooms there: it's a called a toilet. Don't ask for the bathroom or restroom. Call a spade a spade. You're not going to wash up or take a break, you're going to drop the kids off at the pool.

D) One final note on the can just for the men. It's common to have a trough instead of a urinal in New Zealand. We have troughs in the USA, but typically it's just a raised bucket and found only at sporting events or tractor pulls. In NZ, the troughs go all the way to the floor and include a grill that you stand on to allow any dribbling to make it into the trough. Genius really.

E) New Zealand makes a big deal about not bringing fruit or other non-packaged foods into their country, nor do they allow you to have dirt on your shoes. They want to protect the "native" ecology. Of course, this is because New Zealanders have long been bringing plants and animals from other places to help recover from the deforesting that went on early in the history of their islands. The more you know about their history, the more the song and dance at customs seems like a grab at your money.

F) Every bar, playing every kind of live music, on every night of the week, in every town, will always, always, always, ALWAYS play a cover of "Sweet Home Alabama". Without fail, all the bands ended up covering this song at some point or other. I heard a versions in rock, ska, Irish folk, techno, acoustic, and two more in rock. All employed thick kiwi accents to sing about a place that I doubt anyone there could find on the map. It's a good tune though, that goes a long way.

G) Good luck seeing an actual kiwi bird. I saw an albatross and penguins. I saw plenty of birds that were imported due to their looks or singing prowess. I never saw a kiwi bird.

H) Speaking of hard to find kiwis, most of the employees in the public shops and restaurants are not kiwi, but rather are on some sort of exchange work program from elsewhere. I had more waitresses from the USA and Britain than New Zealand. I can only assume that there is a pub in Scotland full of kiwi wait staff.

I) Kiwis are nice, almost to a fault. I never saw a kiwi get so much as agitated. Granted, most of the people that I dealt with were in the tourist industry, so it's their job to be nice. Even when I stayed with the locals, they were just really positive and happy. I guess when you live in paradise, it's hard to find a reason to get annoyed.

Lookit, it's JT:

I'm back in the den of the beast. Somehow, my dog has managed to survive an entire year without me. He has done a good job of taking care of my dad as well. He has taken dad on daily walks since I left.

The one thing about going home to a small town is that even after a year away, everything is exactly the same as when I left. It's good to be someplace familiar to reset my system after so much time in a strange world. I'm busy with unwinding, relaxing, and napping. Hey, I have to try to keep up with JT.

I've decided to add a few photos of my trip through NZ. Things aren't going to be in chronological order on my blog for awhile. I'm just going to throw some things on as I have time and inspiration.

I spent a few days in the town of Dunedin, on the southern part of the south island of New Zealand. I stayed with a wonderful pair of roommates, Gianna & Tim, who were kind enough to take in a poor, weary Antarctican. I had a wonderful time staying with these two. I got to see some things that the average tourist doesn't get to see when they sweep through a city. Gianna actually cooked for me each night I was there. I totally didn't expect that and was pleased to have such tasty food each night. Check it out:


In addition to being great hosts, Gianna and Tim live within walking distance of the beach. It was one of the more beautiful beaches I have seen. It's spring time in NZ, so the water was too cold for swimming (maybe it's always too cold). Also, there was a giant iceberg floating out near the coast, which I'm sure kept the water cooler....


I spent most of my time just walking around, site-seeing, relaxing, and trying the local fare. I did get out to see some penguins on a nature tour. They were marching in from the sea when we were there.

I have decided to clean myself up a bit, so here's a self-portrait of the new me:

Everyone has been saying goodbye, but I'm not really gone. I took a break from my blog cuz I had things to do, places to go, people to get away from, skin to get tan, hair to cut, sites to see, and sushi to eat. There's no way I'm going to be able to sum up everything since my last post, so just chew on this for a bit until I get around to posting new stuff......


Yep, that's me. I'm not at the south pole for the first time in a year, but rather at McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf. That's actually a jet plane ready to take me off to New Zealand. That was the last moment that I set foot on the ice before leaving. I had a nice sack lunch for the trip.

That cold chill that went up your spine last week, that was me being unleashed on the real world.

This is the start of my final week here on the ice. One more Friday, one more weekend, one more of each day. I'll get to say goodbye to most of my friends, hopefully catching up with them in New Zealand when I get there. I'll be busy with packing, training my replacement, and closing up shop (and don't forget "other duties as required" since my boss is in town now). There's fire training for the new folks, working in the suddenly busy store, and trying to keep sane with all of the whacky summer stuff that goes on here. With everything going on and all I have to do, I doubt that I will update my blog before I leave and after I'm gone for that matter. I'll be on holiday for a couple of months after getting off the ice, so that last thing on my mind will be the internet. So, in a way, this is me signing off for awhile. For those of you who know my normal email feel free to drop me a line and for everybody else you can contact me with the email on this blog. I may not check it everyday, but I'll get around to it at some point.

Thanks for reading this garbage. Doviđenja!

Finally. After nine months plus an extra two weeks of waiting, we had our first real flight in of the season. The temperatures rose above the magic -50C mark on Halloween, allowing a total of four flights to arrive. The first flight brought in a bunch of familiar (and unfamiliar) faces and most importantly freshies. That's right, I got to eat some fruit yesterday for the first time since about March. I had a banana, a plum, some apple slices, and watermelon slices. It was a good start.

The second Herc to arrive brought more of the same, but took away some of the winter-over polies badly needing to get out of here. It wasn't as emotional as I expected to see my mates from the winter get on the plane. I was happy to see them get what they have so eagerly anticipated for so long, plus there was so much going on with the new crew arriving that there just wasn't too much time to reflect on the departure of the old crew. About a third of the winter-over crew left yesterday, but the station population more than tripled with the influx of new people.

New, tan, unfamiliar, happy, exhausted. It was strange to walk down the hallway and for the first time in months I didn't know the name of everyone I saw. The people coming in on these flights were just as eager to be here as the outgoing crew was to leave. Most of the new folks had been stuck in uncomfortable living conditions in McMurdo for the past couple of weeks. I also noted that most people that stayed had a replacement person arrive that they could start training. My replacement doesn't arrive until next week, so I didn't have that instant buddy to show around. Also, since I leave later than most, the scene of me saying goodbye to my friends will continue for the next week and a half.

Until then though, we have a breath of fresh air at the south pole station.