{"id":717,"date":"2025-08-31T22:36:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/?p=717"},"modified":"2025-08-31T22:41:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:41:57","slug":"delays-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/2025\/08\/31\/delays-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Delays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/sup>. As often happens with Antarctic field work what is planned and what happens can be two very different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/sup> and Kara and I are scheduled to fly south on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019ll share photos of what I have been doing to fill my time in New Zealand while waiting for our Antarctic flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map\"
Last Tuesday I rode to Little River southeast of Christchurch at the edge of the Banks Peninsula. On Wednesday I took a day trip to Mt. Sunday in the high country of the Southern Alps. This past weekend I took an overnight trip to Lake Tekapo with a ride out to Lake Ohau. On Sunday Kara and I visited Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Little
A 30+ mile rail trail goes from the edge of Christchurch to the town of Little River on the Banks Peninsula. Along the way, the trail passes between the hills of the Banks Peninsula and a large coastal lake, Lake Ellesmere (right side of this photograph).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Lamb
It wouldn\u2019t feel like New Zealand if you didn\u2019t see sheep. I saw this lamb, and lots of other sheep, on my ride to Little River.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Little
Once the trail reaches Banks Peninsula it winds past Lake Forsyth nestled in the hills. Little River is at the far end of this lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rakaia
On the drive from Christchurch to Mt. Sunday we passed the Rakaia River gorge. The water in the Rakaia River, like in many lakes and rivers draining from the Southern Alps, has a beautiful blue color due to the glacial silt suspended in it. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mt.
Mt. Sunday (to the left) is an isolated, rocky hill sitting in the middle of the broad Rangitata River valley and surrounded by the snowy peaks of the Southern Alps. The Golden Hall of the Kings of Rohan in the Two Towers movie was located at the crest of this hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"View
This is the view of the Rangitata River and the Southern Alps from the top of Mt. Sunday. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Mackenzie Basin is a dry grassland, dotted with tussock grass, and surrounded by hills and snowy mountains. It is a landscape that reminds me of Wyoming and like Wyoming ranching is a major activity here. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Church
The Church of the Good Shepherd sits on the shore of Lake Tekapo. The church was built in the 1930s as a memorial to the early settlers and ranchers in the Mackenzie Basin. What it lacks in size it makes up for in the beauty of its surroundings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Lake
Lake Tekapo is one of my favorite places in New Zealand because the lake and surrounding mountains are so beautiful. I was treated to an amazing sunset view across the lake when I arrived Friday night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Lake
On Saturday I rode to the shore of Lake Ohau. Like my home in Colorado, New Zealand experiences strong downslope winds off the mountains. In Colorado these winds are called a chinook but here in New Zealand they are called a norwester because they usually blow from the northwest. A strong norwester, with gusts to 50 mph, pushed against me as I rode out to Lake Ohau.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Akaroa\"
Kara and I went for a rainy hike on the hills outside of Akaroa. The trail offered views across the bay to the town.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Children's
Looking across Children\u2019s Bay with Akaroa on the shore (left side of the photograph). Sailing out of this bay and turning left will bring you to the open Pacific Ocean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2025\/08\/tekapo.jpeg","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 17:51:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/antarcticuavs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}