One step closer

I flew from Pole to McMurdo today!

Yesterday's flight arrived just before lunchtime, so I was happy to hear that my flight was delayed half an hour and I was able to grab some lunch (mac & cheese plus some melon salad.) We eventually took off at around 12:30PM

There were only three passengers on the plane, so there was plenty of room to stretch out. It was only a 3 hour flight, but the weather was windy when we got near McMurdo so it was a pretty turbulent landing.

Over the weekend they switched from the airfield near base to Pegasus airfield which is about an hour away. It took much longer than that to get to base, though, because we had to sit and wait for another group of passengers.

We finally made it into town at around 5:30. I hauled my luggage up the hill to the cargo building because I knew (hoped?) we'd be weighing in this evening and I didn't want to carry my suitcase, backpack, and gear bag all over town. At the cargo area I found that bag drag was at 8PM, so I stripped off the heavy-duty gear we're required to wear on the flight and left everything except my computer and overnight stuff in a big pile.

From cargo I went to housing and found out where I'm sleeping tonight, then went to the room and made up my bed. After that I headed to dinner where the main course was ... pasta and cheese! Fortunately, there was also a curry stir fry, so I had a big plate of that and then sat down to suck up some Internet time.

It's about an hour before bag drag, where I'll weigh in and find out what time the flight to Christchurch leaves. After that I'll likely head back to my room and collapse!