From hoards of people...
and black night skies and glimmering city lights...
and ancient trees of wisdom...
and parks of sun and glory...
and fields of greens...
and gang art sprayed on the dead concrete walls...
and amazing natural sights...
and a taste of Maori native culture accompanied with a pinch of pain just to remind myself this is real...
and the materialism of the city...
to a quiet morning at the Christchurch airport...
where the ice men and women gathered on a C-17....
while sitting next to tons of winter cargo...
we all needed a good rest. R&R did us good ;)
Now it's back to the ice.
And the irony of the situation is that hundreds are waiting, if not dying, to go back home. Over 80% of the people currently living on the ice (1,000 pax) are scheduled to depart within the next couple weeks. This place is going to be empty, quiet and eventually dark.
The few souls that are crazy enough to bare a long winter in Antarctica. 40 of us will be at the South Pole, and about 200 at McMurdo. Not many considering the US population is 33 Milllion.
On our trip back to MacTown I see the seals again. It's welcoming sight indeed, but in less than 24 hours I am flying to the geographic south pole where life hasn't existed for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years, until man set foot there.
and black night skies and glimmering city lights...
and ancient trees of wisdom...
and parks of sun and glory...
and fields of greens...
and gang art sprayed on the dead concrete walls...
and amazing natural sights...
and a taste of Maori native culture accompanied with a pinch of pain just to remind myself this is real...
and the materialism of the city...
to a quiet morning at the Christchurch airport...
where the ice men and women gathered on a C-17....
while sitting next to tons of winter cargo...
we all needed a good rest. R&R did us good ;)
Now it's back to the ice.
And the irony of the situation is that hundreds are waiting, if not dying, to go back home. Over 80% of the people currently living on the ice (1,000 pax) are scheduled to depart within the next couple weeks. This place is going to be empty, quiet and eventually dark.
The few souls that are crazy enough to bare a long winter in Antarctica. 40 of us will be at the South Pole, and about 200 at McMurdo. Not many considering the US population is 33 Milllion.
On our trip back to MacTown I see the seals again. It's welcoming sight indeed, but in less than 24 hours I am flying to the geographic south pole where life hasn't existed for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years, until man set foot there.
