McMurdo Station, the city by the sea!

Sunsets at the bottom of the Earth

Aaron at Sea Ice training - we both LOVE our jobs!

With only a few more weeks of any darkness, we're cherishing the sunsets at 11:00pm before summer brings 24/7 sunlight

The top of Observation Hill

Looking over the frozen bay of the Ross Sea

On Ob Hill with Mt. Eribus in the background

The beautiful cross on top of Ob Hill

The Frozen bay with the Royal Society Mountains in the distance. This is where both of our C-17 planes landed.... on 9 feet of ice

The upper portion of McMurdo Station

Mt. Eribus

Frozen Ross Sea with McMurdo to the right on the water's edge

Frozen faces

Very grateful to be here together

Approaching McMurdo Station in the Frozen Ross Sea

I have so much to learn about this continent!

Unloading from the C-17

We landed in a White-out and would have "boomeraging" (turned around and headed back to NZ) if the flight crew hadn't been under strict directions to get a medivac out on the returning flight to NZ - it was REALLY intense

Welcome to nothing but white all around you

I was SOOOO excited to see Aaron! I had to fly to the bottom of the globe to find him!

Ivan the Terra Bus - one of 7 in the world. The rest are in Canada and the Netherlands - it's a beast and my new wheels for the season!

Four of my fellow shuttle drivers hard at work...

Mt Eribus covered in clouds - an active volcano on our island

Ice Road trucker! This one's for you, Chris Boone! It weighs 63,000lbs and drives like a house on wheels!

Leaving Denver on a Jet Plane.... No clue when I'll be back again! (Hopefully at the beginning of next summer - as long as we don't freeze on the Ice!)

The Windsor Inn in Christ Church NZ - kind of like a hostel but with the best breakfast! Options: eggs to order, British sausage, bacon, kiwis, roasted tomatoes, NZ baked beans, and...... spaghetti! I didn't try it... this is New Zealand, not Italy, I didn't want to ruin my experience.

The Botanical Gardens in Christ Church. I tried to absorb as much Chlorophyll as possible!

Yes New Zealand!

Absorbing in action

In my "Big Red" - the biggest parka in world! I could live in big red and fit everything I could ever need into the pockets!

Gear Issue facility in Christ Church

A send off beer at the Twisted Hop

Loading onto the C-17 to head to the Ice

Flying to the Ice with Scientist Joe - he's a geologist

Flying with Ciara from Little Rock; that's a Snow Cat in the background... it spewed water during our take-off

The Ocean below

The Icebergs below!

The Ice and mountain tops with pools of clouds

Our new home...

New Zealand!

Ga' Day from Christchurch New Zealand! Britt writing here. After the longest plane ride of my life (16 hours in three different planes with a total of 12 hours of layovers) I'm excited to say that I'm in my new favorite country and enjoying tea time! Aaron's been at McMurdo for about two weeks now and is having a blast! Thus far, he's done Sea Ice training and snowmobile school along with learning the in's and out's of being a fuelie. I've been in Christchurch for three days now and we're supposed to fly to the ice today but we were just given a three hour delay because of the weather. The word on the street is that we probably won't go today. It started raining last night and hasn't stopped yet but if we stay here one more day, I'm headed to the art museum and the Antarctica exhibit at the Canterbury history museum. Christchurch is unlike any city I've ever been to. It's fairly big but doesn't give you the closed in feeling that most cities do. The buildings are beautiful with Victorian shutters and trim, bright colors, and incredible gardens. I spent yesterday absorbing chlorophyll at the Botanical Gardens and found a ton of similar herbaceous plants to the ones we have in the USA. Alot of these species are landscaping plants so they could be found around the world but it was really interesting to see them growing in the exact same way as in Colorado. Sedum, penstemon, and Achillea are just a few of the zillions of plants I saw. Really cool! There were enormous trees, the Rimu species, that weave their branches together like a wicker basket and have moss hanging off the bark. ducks, a river that weaves through the city, and everyone seems to have a dog so I've made a point of petting as many dogs as possible since I won't even see one for the next 5 months on the ice. Extremely friendly people with wonderful chocolate (a true test for any country)! The Windsor Inn where I'm staying is super cute and serves the best breakfasts I've ever had (I'm still loyal to Green Chili at Campus Cafe but these breakfasts are pretty dang good!).  I won't be able to upload photos until I get to the ice BUT this website has some really great pictures of things that I've seen: http://www.christchurch.org.nz/photosvideos/index.asp

Cheers and thanks for reading!

Ice Bound

Hi friends and Family! I hope you're having sunshine and fall colors in your part of the world! Well the journey to the land of Ice is underway! Aaron starts his orientation tomorrow in Denver and I'll be able to stay with him there for a few days before he flies out and I hang with my fam for an additional week and a half. We're excited, nervous, and feeling like this really isn't happening..... so strange to tell people that you're spending your winter (in the US) in Antarctica (even though it's summer there now). An island of research buildings and dorm rooms are waiting for us in a sea of snow and ice. Here we go!

McMurdo Station, Antarctica