I left Colorado 2 weeks ago and I am still in Christchurch, New Zealand waiting for my flight to Antarctica. As I said in my last post, the plan was that Kara, the post-doc that I am working with on this trip, and I would spend three nights in Christchurch before flying to Antarctica on Friday August 22nd. As often happens with Antarctic field work what is planned and what happens can be two very different things.
There were four flights scheduled to go to Antarctica in August during WinFly. WinFly refers to a small number of flights to Antarctica at the end of winter to help get McMurdo ready for the summer field season. The first flight went successfully just before we arrived. The second flight, the day before we were scheduled to fly, made it to Antarctica but didn’t land due to a mechanical problem and returned to New Zealand. Fixing this mechanical problem has taken more than a week with a lot of the delay caused by difficulty getting the necessary parts from the US into New Zealand. Each day during this delay we would get a new message from the US Antarctic Program telling us that the flight was being delayed another 24 hours. Finally, this weekend the part arrived and the C-17 was deemed ready to fly.
The second WinFly flight was scheduled to head to Antarctica today but bad weather in McMurdo resulted in another 24 hour delay. With this delay the second flight is scheduled for Tuesday September 2nd and Kara and I are scheduled to fly south on Wednesday.
Because of this long delay we have had a lot of extra time in New Zealand. If I had known a week ago that we wouldn’t be flying for more than week I would have rented a car and toured around the South Island but we needed to stay in Christchurch so that once the plane was ready we would be here and ready to go too. For this post I’ll share photos of what I have been doing to fill my time in New Zealand while waiting for our Antarctic flight.




I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan having read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was a teenager. I am also a fan of the movies which were filmed in New Zealand. On Wednesday I took a tour to Mt. Sunday where the scenes from Edoras in Rohan were filmed.



On Friday I rented a car for the weekend and took an overnight trip to Lake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Basin high country of the Southern Alps.




Yesterday (Sunday) Kara and I took a day trip to Akaroa, on the Banks Peninsula. The Banks Peninsula is the hilly remnant of two extinct volcanoes. The harbors of Lyttleton and Akaroa are located on large, sheltered bays on this peninsula.


While it has been frustrating having such a long delay getting to Antarctica I have been enjoying my time in New Zealand and am trying to see as much as I can. Fingers crossed that the weather in McMurdo cooperates so Kara and I can finally make it to Antarctica this week.
Thanks for reading.
Once many many moons ago I endured a 10 day delay getting to my destination on Baffin Island (NWT) – had a good bed and manageable food at the Cape Dyer DEW line site but scenery not so much! Delays are the hazards/manageable joys of polar travel! Hope you get out on the 2nd.
Hi Ron. Delays are definitely part of doing polar field work. I feel pretty fortunate to be delayed in Christchurch since it is such a nice place to be.
“A strong norwester, with gusts to 50 mph, pushed against me as I rode out to Lake Ohau.” – did that same norwester help you on your ride back? Good luck tomorrow!
The strongest gusts were just near the lake – mostly it was 20 to 30 mph gusts the rest of the way and they did help push me back to town for the second half of my ride.