Three days after we were originally supposed to depart Christchurch for McMurdo base on the coast of Antarctica, the gods of weather and mechanical wellbeing finally harmonized and the great circus of flying 103 people with 10 Air Force crew members to the southernmost continent began.
We were all shuttled from hotels scattered around the Christchurch area back to the Antarctic Center, where we picked up all of the cold weather gear we had tried on 4 days earlier, got our bags together, joined the line to flight check-in...
...gathered for a briefing and a "you're going to Antarctica!" video...
...before finally, at long last, they shuttled us to the C-17 aircraft that was to fly us south, south, south.
It was actually a far more comfortable situation than I was expecting when I heard "military transport." Most of us had normal plane seats, albeit more crammed together and certainly no beverage and snack cart--though we were given ample bag lunches as we boarded to tide us over for the five-hour flight.
Sometime close to the end of the trip, I glanced out a window and got my first glimpse of the frozen continent. So, so beautiful.
And then we were there! It was like a dream. It's so unbelievable that I'm actually here, I had to laugh out loud as I took my first steps on the snow covering the ice runway at Pegasus airfield. (The "white ice" in the runway area is thick enough and solid enough to support these big C-17s landing on very wide, cushy wheels.) That's me in my "big red" issue jacket. Glad I had it, as it was about -10F degrees when we landed. And thank goodness they put our names on the jackets for the season, or you would never be able to tell who it is approaching you at any given moment (everyone looks exactly the same), or to find your jacket when you hang it on a coat hook along with 50 other big reds.
But more on all that later. For now, just appreciating this great moment of first stepping foot on Antarctica and so excited for all that is to come.
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