The time has come for us to say to goodbye to this winter wonderland. We have been in Antarctica 4 months on February 9. My where has the time gone?? It certainly has gone by quickly. I really can’t believe that we will be going back to Christchurch, New Zealand this coming Wednesday (weather permitting of course). From there we will travel with my friend Sandy and her boyfriend Joel for 2 weeks in New Zealand. Eric will be our travel guide. He already has all of our hostels booked for us. What a guy! Yup, he’s a keeper alright! After NZ, we will head to Australia for 2 weeks where we will drive down to Melbourne and hang out around there and possibly to Tasmania. The next stop will be to Hawaii. I’ve never been to Hawaii before. The final stop will be in LA where we will visit my side of the family for a week up and down the coast . Raytheon, the company we’re working for is offering the free stops in Sydney, Hawaii and LA. So we are taking them up on their deal. The reason we have decided to travel to these areas instead of the planned NZ, west Australia and then Africa is unfortunately due to cost. The plane ticket to Africa is really expensive from down here, so we decided to try for Africa from the States, or possibly from Paris, France when we’re there this June for my friend Nikki’s wedding. There is also the week in Puerto Rico for my friend Adrienne’s wedding in April. So we definitely still have some traveling left in us, and that they include weddings is always a plus!
As for the past few weeks. What have I been up to??? I last left off talking about the holidays, MAAG, Ice Stock, penguins and the possibility of going to the Dry Valleys. Since then I am happy to say that I was able to go on my first helicopter flight out to the Dry Valleys. I went on an hour helo ride (with anti-nausea assistance from a small pill) with 3 others from the carp shop out to 2 locations, called Lake Fryxell and Lake Hoare. We went to take down large soft shelter tents called Polar Havens. Both didn’t take too long to take down so we had the opportunity to take a hike. What I thought would be a nice couple hour hike turned into a bit longer of a hike that I had anticipated. Oh my goodness!!!!! It was one of the most difficult hikes I have ever done in my entire life. It was beautiful, but then we started heading up what I am going to refer to as “the mountain from ^%$#” which I truly believe it is. After having hiked for 3 hours we started scrambling up this mountain to see some ventrifacts. I believe these are boulders that are carved out by the wind. They were huge and beautiful. But before we could see there, we had to get there. I had to stop every few minutes to take a break and breathe. It was exhausting. I almost gave up more than a few times. “Please let me go back down the mountain.” I would think. I finally made it up and it was completely worth the pain. They were amazing. We climbed in and around them and took various pictures. Then we had to start the trek back to our camp at Lake Hoare. 7 hours, 18 miles and 1 completely exhausted Texan later, we were back at camp, eating dinner and heading to bed. What a day! I had a great time in the valleys and as you can see from the pictures, it was a breathtaking place to be.
Now for the really fun part of the trip, as if that hike wasn’t fun enough, right?? We got picked up the next day from the helicopter and I nonchalantly asked the pilot if he had seen any whales out in the open water. As the season has gone on, the ice breaker has been breaking up the ice out in the ocean and exposing more and more open water. So this pilot Paul looked at me and said, “Well let’s go and see!” Little did I know it was a great question to ask. The next 30 minutes we spent flying over the open water right over Minke and Orca whales, seals and penguins. It was the coolest experience. We were right over them, but I don’t think we were causing them any harm. There were pods of 5 or 6 at a time that looked like they were just having a good time, swimming in the open water. So great!
Another highlight of the last few weeks was a science lecture that I attended where Sir David Attenborough was the guest speaker. He was down here for a couple of weeks with the BBC doing some filming for their “Frozen Planet” series that I spoke about a few blog entries ago. He gave an hour speech on his beloved birds of paradise from Papau New Guinea. It was a fascinating talk and just hearing his voice took me back in a time warp to growing up and watching his nature documentaries with my family. I know that my dad was beyond thrilled when I told him of this experience and wanted me to talk to him and tell him what a great voice he had. The best I could do was say hello to him and then we proceeded to discuss the dessert selections for the evening. I often thought about telling him how great he was in “Jurassic Park.” Yes, I know that it was his brother Richard that was in it, but it would have been funny nonetheless.
Last week I headed back to WAIS Divide with about 8 others from the carp shop for the close out of WSD. Eric had been there for the week prior doing inspections with the NSF and camp close out as well and ahead of schedule. It was nice to be back at WAIS. It was almost like coming home, since I had spent 5 weeks there earlier in the season. Back to sleeping in a tent in -10 degree weather, but it was quite enjoyable. One last freezing cold hurrah! We had a lot of fun and the close out went really fast. I got back a week ago Tuesday and have been closing out things at the carp shop getting ready to leave on Wednesday.
I really don’t know where to begin to sum up what this experience has been like for me over the past 4 months. Life changing? Challenging? Fun? An adventure? All of the above and more. Sometimes you really don’t know what kind of strength you have inside of you, until you’re put in a very different environment and challenged physically, mentally, emotionally and come out better in the end. I have loved the experience that I have had being in Antarctica and have learned skills that I can continue to build on. It has been truly exceptional and I am even more fortunate to have have had the love and support of friends and family back home who have encouraged me all along the way. The friends that I have made down here as well, will last me a life time and I am truly blessed to have met them. One Coloradan imparticular! Thank you for all of the good times CS! Maybe it is due to the fact that I am turning 30 in a matter of 2 weeks that makes me reflect on what the last 4 months have given me, but oh well. Such is life! Of course I am forever grateful to my sidekick Eric who made this adventure even possible. Thank you my love for the encouragement, support and humor along the way. You are amazing. He has been at my side the whole way through and I hope we will continue with our crazy adventures side by side.
My love and thanks to all of you for your support, e-mails and packages along the way. They have made it just that much easier to be so far away from home. I will be back before I know it! Until then I hope that you have enjoyed reading the blog and seeing the pictures. It has been great fun and I will let you know what out next adventure will be as soon as I know! My love and prayers always.
Love,
Erika
Sunday, February 7, 2010
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