More Oahu

The rest of our family Hawaii time was as blissful as the first half.

Nephew E chillin' with an ice cream as big as his face:

Niece E with her Uncle C:

The ever-present kite-surfers at Kailua beach and the state park in walking distance of our house:

My amazing dad, who at age 70 was out there boogie-boarding with the rest of us:

Sis K with her baby:

One day we took a short hike to a waterfall, guided by sweet (local) family friend N.

The most hilarious part of the hike was that niece E said she wanted to find the biggest walking stick she could carry, and I jokingly found her this beast...

...which she ended up carrying on the ENTIRE hike, mostly over her shoulder like she was some sort of lumberjack, even while she carried a smaller and more manageable walking stick to actually help her hike.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and especially sweet since I've been at South Pole the past two Thanksgivings and am really happy to be back with my family for the holidays this year.

WAY too soon this time is over; I'm not sure any other 10 days of my life have ever gone as quickly as these past 10 did. Wish we could just start right over again with it all.

But, time to move on to the next part of the Great Thawing Out vacation. I'll be back soon with my next missive coming to you from a place completely new to me....

Hawaii redux

Four years ago, shortly before I left Denver to resume a vagabonding life, my family took a trip to Hawaii together that was so beautiful that for months afterward I got teary just thinking about it. Maybe because I must be one of the luckiest people on the planet, this Thanksgiving found us in the exact same rental house in Kailua (Oahu) that we stayed in four years ago. Family vacation Take II.

This is my sweetly chaotic reunion with the fam after more than a year on ice. It has been completely wonderful, even if I'm a little more prone right now to getting overwhelmed by so many people and so much going on all at once after all those months of relatively quiet predictability at Pole.

In some ways it feels like no time has passed since we were last here together. But then I look at the kiddos and realize how different things are now with them. Four years past--and having 6-to-12 year-olds as part of our crew, which is fundamentally different than being on a trip with a troupe of 2-to-8 year-olds--makes for a new experience, for sure. So still sweet, though. And getting focused time with my brother and his wife (a way-too rare occurence) is always special, and seeing the familiar family dynamics in action, and, and, and--

Anyway, some shots from the first half of our time here....

The first thing the kids wanted to do as soon as we got to the house, even though dusk was falling:

Niece R is loving repeatedly marveling at how hopelessly pale I am, and we took this pic on day one as a "guess who's been at the South Pole for the past year" joke. In my defense, my sister (on the left) is also very fair. I guess not as ghostly white as I am at the moment, though neither of us will ever have the gift of turning instantly golden brown as R (second from left) did the moment we got here. Oh, and this picture apparently proves that I (next down the line) have chicken legs, to boot. Oh, well. (For the record, I HAVE gotten SOME color since this picture was taken.)

Nephew E's trip so far: Play in sand till covered head to toe. Jump in ocean to rinse. Repeat.

One night we all went into Honolulu for Chinese food and a U of Hawaii women's volleyball match (against U of Santa Barbara), which is obviously THE thing to do around here.

But then everyone got right back into the ocean.

Or in trees.

Or sand.

And the adults who are not senior citizens (or suffering from an unfortunately timed sprained ankle--sorry, bro-in-law!) took a surfing lesson in Haleiwa.

Okay. Enough for now. One more Hawaii post to come, as the days continue to fly by WAY too fast.

Day in Sydney

Thanks to flight schedules/long layover options, on my way from New Zealand to Hawaii, I got to spend a full day in Sydney with great family friends who live there. And what a day it was: absolutely gorgeous weather and lovely company. After a delicious brunch, we got on the public ferry through Sydney Harbor to Manly, a city adventure that has been on my Sydney hit-list but I hadn't gotten in to in a couple of previous (too-short) visits.

The view of downtown Sydney as the ferry pulls away can't be beat.

And Manly was a sweet beach town to walk around for a few hours as we chatted nonstop and enjoyed some pretty amazing ice cream.

Some clouds were rolling in by the time we ferried back downtown, but that only made the view more dramatic.

Add to all this bliss an afternoon nap and a yummy Thai dinner, and by the time we headed back to the airport for my onward flight that night, I was pretty much drowning in contentment. (Thank you, M & P! xoxo)

Some Fairlie great time

After three nights with my lovely new Kaiapoi/Christchurch friends (dressed up, in this pic, for being on their way to the horse races for the day)...

...I headed south for three more utterly wonderful, relaxing days with my Ice friends (and part-time Kiwi residents) A & E at their hand-crafted home in Fairlie.

Any of my 2.7 readers with a frighteningly good memory might recognize these two from a visit paid them here during the Great New Zealand Tour of 2015. During that trip, there was a lot of tree cutting-down and wood-chipping going on. This time I got to experiment with a different side of things, as A had planed some of the plethora of wood in their work shed and got me set up on the power sander...

...and I proceded to go nuts making (spoiler alert, Family!) coaster and cutting-board presents for the upcoming Christmas.

Other than that and a wee bit of weeding in a pathetic attempt to earn my keep, it was an awesomely gluttonous few days of lots of sleep, bottomless cups of tea, great food, even better conversation, a walk in the rain, and trying to make sense of what's happening in America right now, from afar. Also, we woke one night to strange sounds and a subtle sliding of the earth as Kaikoura--a heavily touristed city that's a good 4.5-hour drive from where we were was hit with a significant earthquake. Very grateful for all that there were not many fatalities, though it's very lucky that I stayed south of Christchurch, as traffic north of there is completely blocked.

Too soon, it was time to leave the bucolic haven of Fairlie...

...and head back to Christchurch. Setting out, tomorrow, on the next leg of the adventure. More soon!

Back in New Zealand!

Magically, after a year plus on the coldest, driest, highest, windiest continent, I was back in New Zealand, almost like the whole thing was a dream.

Or maybe the dream was going out for brunch the morning of my first full day back, overwhelmed by the sight and taste of food that has not been in deep freeze storage for the better part of the past decade...

...and the colors and amazing smells of Christchurch's botanical gardens...

...or going to the restaurant Mexico specifically for its plum margarita, which I've been thinking about regularly for the past year.

After some time in Christchurch proper, I went to stay a few nights with friends of friends in the town of Kaiapoi, just a bit north of the city. Along with an absurd amount of sleeping and catching up on quiet time and internet tasks, I learned a good bit cooking wonderful dinners each night with my hosts and got quickly addicted to an Australian cooking competition show that they enjoy watching each night.

Two days consecutively (couldn't get enough!) I also took a 6-mile round-trip walk from Kaiapoi to the beach, enjoying the bucolic scenery along the way and the sight of the ocean after a fully frozen, land-locked year.

The water was COLD but I was happy.

McMurdo, revisited

Well, wow. A day later than scheduled, but early enough not to mess up any onward plans, and just before the weather closed in and caused flight cancellations the next day, a Herc made it to Pole and I found myself running in circles tying up the loose ends of my life at South Pole, and getting on a plane, and suddenly I was gone. (This is actually the plane with me on it; got this picture from a Polie left behind.)

It was incredible to land back in McMurdo more than a year after I last transited through and to see mountains on the horizon rather than endless flat.

I had one overnight there--just barely enough time to say hello to most of the people I wanted to say hello to, and to achieve my one other goal, of visiting the "Ob Tube." I can't quite believe we're allowed to do this, but so glad we are. They sink this watertight tunnel about 20 feet down under the sea ice. Here's me outside the tunnel about to climb down...

...and then a shot of my lovely friend, C, looking down from above once I'm all the way down.

Inside the tunnel, it's absolutely magical. The color of the ice is amazing, and we saw some mollusk-type creatures and some small jellyfish and heard seals calling. It felt like being hypnotized, or somehow outside of time.

So quickly, it was time to transport back to the airfield and say goodbye to Antarctica for real, as we waited in the passenger building, watching the plane from New Zealand (which we would soon be boarding) land on-continent...

...and waved goodbye to Mount Erebus one more time before heading to board the plane.

And then, the most extraordinary thing happened. We were just a couple hundred yards from the plane, walking across the ice to go board, and one of the air field workers said all casually, "Oh, there's a penguin." And I looked over where he was pointing and THERE WAS A PENGUIN.

Even after 16 months in Antarctica, I had never seen a penguin in Antarctica, since almost all of my time was at South Pole and there is no water for hundreds of miles and therefore no life. But darned if, in my last 30 minutes there before leaving, this Adelie penguin didn't appear out of nowhere and waddle right up to us.

It stood there posing for pictures until we had to leave, maybe just as enthralled with us as we were with it...

...and no doubt marveling at all those creatures in red who were filming it to no end.

So my actual goodbye to Antarctica was a salute to Erebus with Adelie friend in foreground.

Too freakin' perfect, leaving me feeling absolutely charmed.

Weekly snapshot #53

The day was beautiful! The weather was PERFECT for incoming planes! And so we were supposed to get our first two Hercs (carrying a total of 55 summer people and taking away six more winter-overs) in today. Everything felt so hopeful for things getting back on schedule with flights and summer ramping-up. And then both flights were cancelled due to mechanical. Wah-wah.

So they will try again tomorrow. There is still hope for me getting back to the outside world as scheduled at the end of this week, though it's by NO means guaranteed. So this will just have to be a cliff-hanger. Maybe there will be another Friday post from Pole. (Though if I'm still at Pole on Friday I may be too bummed out to want to post!) Or maybe I will be stuck in McMurdo...or maybe I will be in Christchurch, taking long showers and sleeping 10-11 hours/night. Only time will tell. And only time will tell when I end up posting next. If this is indeed the last message from South Pole, big thanks for following along this year, and I promise there will be something other than snow in the pictures next time I post any.

Those summer crew people who have made it here are very busy operating equipment and ramping up for summer projects.

And this is just a bonus shot of me with my great co-workers, one last time.