McMurdo Station Antarctica

McMurdo Station Antarctica

 Going to Antarctica can involve a lot of waiting for things to happen.  Awaiting the flight at christ church

Noisy (you can see some people's ear-plugs) and not even a movie to watch - but hey! you're on your way to Antarctica! 

 Eventually after much staring at open ocean, you make out the shape of the first iceberg - it's really happening, you're on your way to Antarctica and here's the proof. 

 Going to McMurdo - must be one of the best build-ups to any arrival. Stormy seas and nothing but sea, then small pieces of sea ice, getting bigger and more numerous, then continuous broken up sea ice becoming more consolidated the nearer you get.

 Inter-continental travel is like time-travel, take off in one season and land in another (so it seems). Leave New Zealand in spring or summer and then arrive in a frozen winter wonderland (ok - it's still spring or summer, but you get the idea).

Off the plane that has just landed on a frozen sea-ice runway.

I remember this  kind of scene, you want to go everywhere and look at everything all at once, but first there is boring stuff to get done and also, you're also wondering why it is that only the new arrivals are wrapped up so much in pretty all their new gear and the people who already live there seem to be wearing far less than you are?

 Ivan is a big red bus with great big tyres to deal with the icy terrain. I presume the name comes in a round about way from Mount Terror which is near-by, the leap to Ivan the Terra Bus was inspired.

 McMurdo is surrounded by dark volcanic dirt that in the summer looks far from the romantic eternally white image that you probably had before you arrived.

 Sometimes known as McMudhole for the dirty and muddy appearance in the summer when the winter snow and ice have melted, it's more picturesque when you turn your back to it and look out to the mainly still frozen sea.

Named during the 1901-1904 British National Antarctic Expedition under Captain Scott, Observation Hill is a 230m high conical hill, surmounting Cape Armitage at the S end of Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island.  Named because it forms an excellent lookout station.

Being inside the Antarctic Circle, McMurdo experiences times of constant light and constant darkness during the year where the sun doesn't rise above or fall below the horizon respectively.