August 25, 2012 - Still in New Zealand

Hi all - still in Kiwi-land!  Our flight south was supposed to leave on Thursday the 23rd, but here it is, Saturday the 25th and we are still in New Zealand!  It's not surprising to be delayed on any trip to Antarctica (and particularly those going during Winfly), so this hasn't been too much of a shock.  The weather has been the hold up so far, but tomorrow things look ok to fly so hopefully we will go then.  We are scheduled to leave around 5 pm our time (11 pm CO time), and as it's approximately a 6 hour flight we won't arrive in McMurdo until 11 pm our time (5 am CO time).  Right now, it looks to be around -25C (-8F) in the hours before we land, with the winds dropping to around 10-15 knots (11-17 mph).  That's not bad by Antarctica's standards.  By the time we land, the temperature will likely have dropped even more as the winds die down.  Keep your fingers crossed that we make it!

In the meantime, since we had another couple of days in Christchurch, I've been taking advantage of the good weather and speedy internet to do some biking and Skype with the family.  I was missing home yesterday quite a bit, and was happy to get to Skype with Paul, Mom, and Aiden.  Aiden seemed pretty excited to see me.  I did that and a bit of work yesterday, and then headed north of town for a bike ride.  It was probably around 15 miles or so, but must have been one of the most frustrating rides I've been on.  Due to the earthquakes a few years ago, lots of roads are closed or are damaged, and I was constantly having to turn around and find new routes.  I spent a lot of my time following my nose to try to get where I needed to.  I was out much longer than I intended because of this.  I also ended up inadvertently spraying myself with geese poo.  By the end of my ride, I was ready to throw out my bike and never look at it again.  Fortunately, today's ride though was better.  John and I took a 35 mile ride out to Sumner, and the ride there was much easier and less depressing than the one I went on the day before.  There was still earthquake damage to be had, such as in this cemetery we rode through.

Lots of damaged and toppled over headstones in the cemetery.

The beach out there was really nice, and I enjoyed looking at the Pacific.  I think though that 35 miles was a bit on my outer end of riding though, and I was pretty dead to the world when I got back.

The Pacific Ocean.

Hopefully the next pictures I have are cold and dark!  Talk to you soon!