Antarctica, Austral Summer 2019 - 2020 (Part 1 - Delayed in Christchurch)
I would like to preface this journal entry acknowledging that it is much longer than usual. Although I typically like to break up my travels into smaller entries, I found that it did not make sense to spread out my time in Christchurch, NZ to multiple posts.
That being said, as our “ice flight” down to McMurdo station continued to get delayed due to weather, I couldn’t help but share my experiences in New Zealand and thus this entry grew longer day after day.
Over the last several years, I have made it a priority of mine to fill my life with adventure. I want to see things most others don’t see, do things most others don’t do, and visit places most people don’t visit. Antarctica is known to many as “the last continent” and in the last few years I have become more and more interested with getting to see it for myself.
Unfortunately, visiting Antarctica as a tourist is wildly expensive. The only real way to visit the continent is on a luxury expedition cruise. These cruises will run you anywhere from $9,000 - $17,000 USD per person, and that doesn’t even include your airfare to Ushuaia, Argentina where most of these cruises embark.
I was left feeling disappointed thinking to myself that the only other way to get to Antarctica would be as a scientist and it’s definitely a little too late for me to be changing career paths.
While browsing for videos to watch on YouTube, I stumbled upon a channel run by user K VEX who lived and worked in Antarctica. Throughout his numerous vlogs, he shows the various different jobs found at the United States research bases. Suddenly I had an epiphany: scientists have to eat and where there’s people that have to eat, there are cooks. That was my ticket in.
I began scrounging the internet trying to find out what kind of jobs are available and where I can apply. After an hour or so of browsing, I found the job listing I was looking for: postings for a sous chef position at the McMurdo, Palmer, and Amundsen-Scott research stations in Antarctica.
I applied for positions at all of them and then, as luck would have it, I get an email to schedule a phone interview for a position as an alternate sous chef. After a few interviews with the people in charge of the program and a thorough background check, I was formally offered the position. I can’t explain just how excited I was, but I also tried to curb my excitement since being an alternate does not guarantee you will get to go.
On July 25, while we were in Cuenca during our trip around Ecuador, I got an email asking me if I would like to fill a primary role that had just opened up for the upcoming season at the McMurdo research base on Ross Island. I could not answer “YES!” fast enough.
I was ecstatic, but that meant my next few weeks were going to be hectic. In order to live and work in Antarctica, you have to be healthy. With limited access to medical facilities, they can’t afford to send people there that may begin to fall apart on the ice. Because of this, you have to get A LOT of exams done.
Immediately upon our return to the States, I had to get an extensive physical exam, blood work, drug test, EKG, and dental exam to make sure I “physically qualified” (PQ). I had to do all of this while we would be getting ready to move to Oregon in about two weeks time.
Knowing I’d have a tight window to get all this done, I was proactive and scheduled all my appointments while I was still in Ecuador for the days immediately following our arrival in Boston. My blood work, physical, drug test, and EKG were all great. Physically I am as healthy as an ox.
My PQ process hit a snag however when I got my dental exam. Apparently my years of not taking the greatest care of my teeth had caught up to me and I had a few cavities…and by a few I mean a lot. In order to work in Antarctica for a full season you are not allowed ANY kind of tooth decay which meant every cavity had to be filled.
Fortunately for me, I knew two dentists who were able to squeeze me in to every available slot they had over the next four days to get all the work I needed done. After about 11 hours worth of work on my teeth, I was given a clean bill of health by my dentist.
Actual panoramic X-Ray of my mouth. My dentists told me I had some of the longest roots they’d ever seen.
The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is in charge of reviewing the PQ forms for all participants in the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). I was scheduled to be on the ice on October 2 so I had until September 4 to fax all of my forms to UTMB. I sent the last thing they requested with about a day to spare and now I had nothing to do but wait for them to tell me if I was cleared or not.
My anxiety was mounting. My deployment date was approaching and I still had not heard anything from them. Finally on September 11, I got the email I had been waiting for: a green light from UTMB to go to Antarctica. The last obstacle had been hurtled.
The company that hired me emailed me my flight itinerary to New Zealand scheduled to leave from the Eugene airport on the September 27.
I spent the next two weeks and change doing my part to help us settle in to our new home in Springfield.
On the morning of September 27, the day I’ve been dreaming of was finally here. I said bye to Audrey and our dogs before leaving for the airport. This was honestly the hardest thing for me. We had never been apart for so long but Audrey had been nothing but encouraging the entire time, pushing me to go for it.
Since she was just about to start her first semester towards her PhD, she is going to be very busy the next few months so the timing of this trip was actually perfect; I get to on this adventure while she can focus strictly on her studies.
My first flight from Eugene took me an hour and change south to San Francisco. Being my first time at this airport, I was stunned by its size. It’s massive. I had a six hour layover before my flight to Auckland, so I made my way to a United Club lounge so I could get some free snacks and drinks.
I am a proud United Airlines passenger. I even have lifetime Gold Premiere status with them. My biggest complaint about their ground product, which is a complaint that can be levied against pretty much any American airline, is that their lounges are fairly lacking when compared to those of European or Middle Eastern airlines. It’s my understanding that United is trying to remedy this with their new Polaris First Class Lounge however I have not traveled in international first class on United since these started popping up.
During my layover in San Francisco, I met up with Jessica, one of the other sous chefs at McMurdo who was flying down on the same flight as me. We boarded the plane and endured the 13 hour non-stop flight down to Auckland. It was overnight so thankfully I was able to get a few hours of sleep but I am never able to get much.
Upon arriving in Auckland at 5 AM local time, I got through passport control where I was issued a special 12-month visitor’s visa as member of the Antarctic program and made it through customs without incident. I rechecked my bags for my flight to Christchurch and went through security once again. As a Star Alliance Gold Member, I was allowed access to the Air New Zealand domestic lounge while I waited on my flight.
The Air New Zealand lounge was really nice especially for a domestic lounge. Every complaint I just mentioned about food in American lounges was no where to be found here. Since it was still morning, there was a full breakfast spread available: hot oatmeal with all the fixings, roasted potatoes, baked beans, sausages, and properly cooked scrambled eggs.
After my 13 hour flight from SFO to Auckland, the hour-and-a-half flight to Christchurch was cakewalk. I was met at the airport by Diane, a representative for the USAP who gave me my vouchers for the super shuttle to my hotel, gave me a run down of my schedule while in the city, and helped me through the airport.
On the shuttle, I met Andrea and her daughter Neve. They were visiting Christchurch from Auckland to tour a college for the next year. They took a big interest in my trip to Antarctica and they asked if I would want to watch a rugby game later that night at a pub.
I finally got to my hotel, the Rendezvous Hotel. After 27 hours of travel, a hot shower and a bed were very welcome. I dozed off for a bit before walking around for a few blocks to see what was in the area.
At 7:30, we met up with Andrea and Neve in the hotel lobby and we walked to The Little Fiddle to watch the Rugby World Cup match between Australia and Wales. I used to play rugby in high school and college but it’s hard to follow the sport in the United States since it’s nowhere to be found on TV. It was pretty fun to be able to watch it surrounded by other people who enjoy the sport.
At halftime I called it an early night and walked back to the hotel since we were all getting picked up early the next day to go to supervisor training.
Since I had not yet gotten used to the time zone change I found myself up at around 5 AM local time (9 AM back home in Oregon). I kind of lounged around my hotel until 6:30 when Jessica and I headed across the street to the Caffeine Laboratory for breakfast.
New Zealand is well known for it’s premium lamb so we both ended up ordering the lamb eggs benedict with smoked paprika hollandaise, wilted baby spinach, and hashbrowns. It was absolutely incredible.
The lamb shoulder was tender and seasoned beautifully while the hollandaise had the right amount of tang and the paprika added a nice, subtle kick. Additionally the dish was beautifully presented. My only knock on the meal was that the poached eggs were a little over poached. It may be a cultural thing to have the poached eggs more on the cooked side but I like my yolks still pretty runny.
At 8:15, the super shuttle arrived at our hotel to pick up all of us from the Rendezvous hotel to take us to the International Antarctic Centre (IAC) next door to the Christchurch airport. We spent the next seven hours at our supervisor training before heading back to the hotel.
The next morning at 6:45 AM, we were once again picked up at our hotel by a super shuttle that took us back to the IAC for further training, orientation, and to pick up our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear.
In addition to our ECW equipment, I was also given my chef coats and chef jackets that I would need to take down with me to the ice. I had not taken this weight into account when I was packing so I would have to rearrange my luggage in order to meet the 85-pound limit.
After training we all headed back to our hotels before we agreed to meet at the Breakfree hotel where the other members of the galley crew were staying. We went to have dinner at Coriander’s, an Indian restaurant near our hotels. The food was absolutely delicious and having dinner together gave me a great opportunity to meet some of the people I was going to be working with.
After dinner we made our way back to our respective hotels since we were going to be picked up at 7:15 AM to take us to the airport for our 10 AM ice flight.
I woke up at 5 AM, too excited to sleep anymore. At the IAC we were given a phone number to call that would have a pre-recorded message with updates on our flight in the event of a delay. I called the line at 6:00 AM and surely enough, due to poor weather at McMurdo, our ice flight was postponed 24 hours.
Jessica and I got breakfast at the Caffeine Laboratory again before going to Breakfree to meet up with the rest of the galley crew. One of our cooks, Justin, planned on renting a car so that we could all drive about two hours west to hike at Mt. Sunday.
It was extremely rainy on the way there but we continued forward with the hopes that it would stop somewhere along the way. About an hour from Mt. Sunday, the rain actually turned into snow which made the landscape even more beautiful than I could have imagined.
As we were arriving to the base of Mt. Sunday, the rain and snow stopped and the sun came out, giving us perfect weather to hike up to the summit. Mt. Sunday is not a particularly large mountain and was easy enough to hike, even for someone like me with out the greatest hiking experience in mountainous areas.
What the mountain lacks in size is made up for by the surrounding beauty. Large, snow covered mountains surrounded us completely and this location served as the backdrop for Edoras, the capital of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
We stayed at the summit for a bit to admire the view, but most importantly to catch our breath. We took several pictures together and talked or a bit and got to really know each other. It made me really excited for this season on the ice.
We hiked back down, got back to the car and headed back to Christchurch. We took a small detour to a town nearby named Methven where we had lunch at the Blue Pub. Methven is notorious among the USAP community.
Last year, weather at McMurdo was so bad that flights were delayed for three weeks, leaving all the people waiting to fly down stuck in New Zealand. There were so many people stuck in New Zealand that the USAP rented out a small lodge in Methven where they housed 66 people. The town is about an hour and a half from Christchurch so it wasn’t exactly close to everyone else.
We made it back to Christchurch, dropped off our rental car and made it back to Breakfree to take advantage of happy hour where we continued bonding before calling it a night.
The morning of October 3 started much the same way as the previous day: I woke up early, called the Antarctic travel hotline only to be informed that our flight was once again delayed. The only different thing about today was that it was my birthday (technically).
After breakfast, I went to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to weigh my bags for the ice flight. After loading my bags with all my chefs jackets and pants I came in two pounds under the limit which took a huge load off my mind. I ran in to Justin at the CDC who was there mailing himself a box of snacks for when he got to the ice. We got an uber together back to the downtown area to get lunch at Coriander’s before going to the Breakfree for happy hour drinks to celebrate my birthday.
Everyone was inviting me to beers all night and I admittedly got a little tipsy. We had dinner at a restaurant nearby aptly named Mexico, where I got a free tequila shot on top of the numerous margaritas I had already had to drink.
Hoping to fly out the next day, we made each went to our respective hotels for the day.
Another day, another 24-hour delay. I decided to keep things fairly low key to start. I had breakfast at C1 Espresso, about a ten minute walk from my hotel. There I met up with Lance and Katie, two stewards who would be working in the galley down at McMurdo this season as well.
I must say, Christchurch’s breakfast game is strong. I did not have a single bad meal for breakfast during my time there. Lance, Katie, and I ate and drank coffee while we talked about a variety of different topics ranging from climate change to the 2020 democratic primary just to name a few.
I headed back to my hotel and stumbled upon two more people from the Antarctica program: Cody and Melanie. It was around 12:30 in the afternoon so I suggested we have lunch at Coriander’s. Despite the fact this was literally my third day in a row eating here, this meal was just as good as the first.
Wes, one of the USAP employees also in Christchurch sent a message to a Facebook group message I was added to a few days prior asking if anyone was interested in seeing the newly released movie, Joker. Since this isn’t a movie reviewing blog I won’t go into too much detail other than saying I really enjoyed it and Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in it was pretty spectacular.
Later that night, our group coordinated to go to a bar called The Bog about a ten minutes walk from my hotel. The next few hours were spent having a great time and getting to get to know some of the people I’d be living with for the next five months a little better.
