So Ends a Rather Fantastic Series of Adventures

I'm back in Columbus now, preparing to start classes on Wednesday.

The past two weeks have been full of friends and new places. I spent a week and a half staying with my friend Cat in Christchurch following my departure from The Ice. I saw a few people from the last time I was in New Zealand and met up with some friends from Antarctica for some exploration of life's finer pleasures (read: wine-tasting). I did a substantial amount of hiking, summiting two 2000 meter peaks in two days, plus miscellaneous glaciers (the original title of this post, when I was planning on writing it in New Zealand, was either 2x2x2000, or something involving some witty remark about leaving Antarctica and going to climb more glaciers). All this was accomplished with nothing more than a rental car and the minimum possible advanced planning.

I first explored Christchurch, somewhat more in-depth than I did on the way to Antarctica, having more time and money. I visited the botanical gardens and the Re:START mall, witnessed some demolition of earthquake-damaged buildings (two years later, it's still going on), met up with friend and IES Abroad Christchurch program coordinator, Eunice, who gave me a tour of some of the lesser-known areas earthquake of destruction, and went to a rehearsal of one of the pipe bands I was a part of when I was studying there.

Shipping containers protecting a roadway from falling debris in Sumner

Re:START mall, made out of shipping containers, where Cashel Mall used to be in downtown Christchurch

Skyscraper under deconstruction, Cashel St, Christchurch

The following day I commandeered a car and headed for the hills. Despite the number of times I've driven through Arthur's pass, I'd never stopped to hike there, so that was my destination. I booked a hostel and drove in early in the afternoon with the intention of climbing Avalanche Peak, but it was to be an eight-hour hike and I got there later than intended, so I settled for a couple of waterfall walks (Devil's Punchbowl and Bridal Veil Falls) and a hike up to a valley glacier. While the off-track hike up the glacial river was quite lovely, it was relatively anticlimactic because the glacier itself was covered in sediment and barely distinguishable from the surrounding cliffs.

Bridal Veil Falls, Arthur's Pass

Punchbowl Falls, Arthur's Pass

Glacier at the head of Bealy Valley, Arthur's Pass

I settled into my accommodation after an early dinner and woke up the next morning to do Avalanche Peak. I leap-frogged for a while with a German environmental scientist from Bolivia who had a lot of really interesting insight into the human element of climate change, and we ended up hiking the last kilometer up and most of the way down together. The peak itself was spectacular. We hiked into and then above the clouds, emerging onto a knife edge with only glaciers and a small number of peaks visible above the white. The whole hike, contrary to the Department of Conservation's estimate (6-8 hours) took 5.5 hours, including a very generous stop for lunch. With all the extra time, I drove back to Christchurch in time for dinner and went to see Les Misérables (the movie; Russel Crowe was a thoroughly deplorable casting choice, Anne Hathaway wasn't terrific, and Hugh Jackman didn't start off well, but he got better as the movie went on. All in all, the first half was difficult to suffer through, and the second half was brilliant) with Cat.

Ascent into the clouds, Arthur's Pass

View west from the top of Avalanche Peak, Arthur's Pass

The next morning it was off to Aoraki/Mt. Cook for some more hiking. I got there in the early afternoon and immediately headed up toward Mt. Ollivier, despite the cloudy weather, arriving at the summit in the early evening. The first half of the hike was stairs for the sake of accessibility, because of a particularly popular tourist attraction (the Sealy tarns) half-way up. There were over 2200 steps. It was excruciating. But the views were well worth it. I continued up the track (a real track this time) to the top of Mt. Ollivier via Mueller Hut and I was rewarded with some of the most spectacular scenery my eyes have ever had the pleasure to witness. When combined with the sounds of calving glaciers every few minutes and the smells of alpine wildflowers, it was in incredibly sensory experience, which words cannot begin to convey. But here are some pictures.

Sealy Tarns, Aoraki/Mt. Cook

View southeast from Mt. Ollivier with Aoraki/Mt. Cook Village

View northeast from Mt. Ollivier toward Mt. Sefton (left) and Mt. Cook (distant) with Mueller Hut in the foreground

Mt. Sefton moonrise, Aoraki/Mt. Cook

After a restful sleep at one of the hostels in the village (after coming down all those blasted steps), I met up with Antarctic friends (two of whom are actually Ohio State students that I didn't know - life at a big school, right?), Kelsey, Allie, and Garrett, and we departed Mount Cook village in search of greener pastures, er, vineyards. We went to Wanaka, where we visited the well-known and extremely scenic Rippon Vineyard, and stayed the night before heading to Cromwell, one of New Zealand's less frequented regions, for some tasting at a less known but more delicious small vineyard called Domain Road. I went to a lot of vineyards and brought home a lot of wine, but, all totaled, 40% of it is from Domain Road. The owner gave us a very thorough introduction to his processes and wines, and we went away very satisfied, if a little a poorer.

View from Rippon Vineyard, Wanaka

Domain Road Vineyard, Bannockburn

Not having filled my wine quota from Central Otago, I headed up north of Christchurch with the intent of tasting some of the Sauvignon Blancs for which the Marlborough region is so well known. However, I was waylaid and, I admit, a bit tired of driving, so about a half hour out of Christchurch (it would have been four hours to Marlborough), I saw an intriguing winery and stopped by. This turned out to be the small, but award-winning Greystone Winery (and vineyard), from which I came away with a lovely Chardonnay to go with my next clam chowder dinner. I stopped by a couple other vineyards in the area, including the famous Pegasus Bay Wines, but restrained myself, with difficulty, from overextending my wallet. I drove back to Christchurch, returned the car, and spent the remaining two days in the city going through museums, gardens, parks, favorite haunts (e.g. Captain Ben's fish and chips), etc.

Pegasus Bay Winery grounds, Waipara

Victorian flower arrangement, Festival of Flowers, Christchurch Botanical Gardens

Topiary penguins, Festival of Flowers, Christchurch Botanical Gardens

Mountfort Gallery of European Decorative Arts, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch

Cathedral Square, Christchurch

I caught an early morning flight to the land down under (north of where I'd been for the past two months...), where I stayed for three nights. I don't have much to write about it because I pretty much stayed in the city and did touristy things. I walked all around the city, went to a spectacular orchestra concert (Tan Dun conducting his Martial Arts Trilogy with the Sydney Symphony) at the Sydney Opera House, ate at a few delicious, albeit expensive, pubs and grills, visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Australian Museum, the zoo, the aquarium, the National Maritime Museum (where I explored a replica of Captain Cook's Eneavour), and the Royal Botanical Gardens.

It was really quite an amazing city. It was incredibly vibrant at all hours. It was surprisingly diverse and modern while proudly (sometimes apologetically) acknowledging a rich history of which I was unaware until my visit. The architecture, both new and old, was visually striking and generally aesthetically pleasing, and overall, its economy was much less tourist-driven than New Zealand's, which I liked. When I got up in the morning to walk to the gardens, I walked alongside people in suits and ties rather than through a gaggle of tourists trying to board a bus. It was refreshing.

Sydney Opera House, designed by Jørn Utzon, opened 1973, Sydney Harbour

Sydney Harbour

St. Mary's Cathedral, designed by William Wardell, opened 1883, Sydney CBD

Replica of HMB Endeavour, Captain Cook's ship, Darling Harbour

Row houses, The Rocks, Sydney's historic shipping district

Shark tank, Sydney Aquarium, Darling Harbour

Tasmanian devil, Sydney Zoo, Darling Harbour

Dome interior, Queen Victoria Building, designed by George McRae, opened in honor of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897, Sydney CBD

Chief Secretary's Building, designed by colonial architect Jarmes Barnet, opened 1880, Sydney CBD

Fireworks, Darling Harbour

Same view, different time of day, Darling Harbour

Downtown Sydney with bridge and opera house from Mrs. Macquarie Point, the Domain

But now I'm back in good ol' Columbus, preparing for the beginning of second session classes on Wednesday. Not sure what'll be next here. Maybe pictures of Columbus, or maybe it'll be dormant until my next foray into unknown lands. In the meantime, keep a weather eye, and thanks for watching!

The ВЛАДИМИР ИГНАТЮК Has Landed

And that is truly an indicator of the end of the season. The Russian icebreaker Vladimir Ignatyuk broke through the ice edge, some miles out from McMurdo, on February 3rd, and slowly made its way toward the station over the course of the next day. Since then, it's been carving out a channel and turn-around area big enough for the fuel, supply, and cargo vessels that will be making their respective ways to the base over the course of the coming weeks to remove waste and science gear, and to refuel and resupply the station for the 150 or so people who stay here for the eight-month winter.

The Vladimir Ignatyuk, with the Royal Society Range in the background, carves out a turnaround for cargo ships in front of McMurdo Station.

We've been busy preparing to ship everything off-continent. This includes charging batteries (about 100 of them), taking apart circuit boards, sorting cables, moving things from box to box, cleaning, and many other tasks both menial and substantial. This has all been made easier by the fact that we managed to finish our field work for the season - we made a helicopter flight to Butcher Ridge on Thursday and a Twin Otter flight to Iggy Ridge on Friday, closing out our obligations for this field season. Very exciting!

We almost didn't fly to Butcher Ridge because the weather was bad at McMurdo, but since we didn't have any time left in the season, we decided to go for it, and that turned out to be a good decision. Out there it was sunny with no wind, which was good, because at temperatures of -10 or less, any wind becomes painful. The ride out took us above canyons and high cliff walls. Actually, it rather reminded me of Utah, except for the massive amount of snow.

You have to admit that it's got sort of a southwestern feel.

Iggy was another story entirely. It was sunny when we got there, but as we landed the plane pitched a bit and we could see the snow blowing across the ice sheet. Iggy sits right at the edge of the plateau and it's particularly susceptible to katabatic winds. When we first got out of the plane, it wasn't miserable. The temperature was around -25 with 20- to 30-knot winds, and while we were hauling all of our gear (about 500 pounds) up the ridge (and over a crevasse we didn't notice until later), we were keeping warm enough not to notice. But when we started working on the station, the winds picked up to 30 knots consistently, with gusts up to 50, and the temperature dropped independent of the extra wind chill factor. Our backpacks, which we left on the ground, were covered by drifted snow within an hour, so we kept moving it around. The gear we left by the plane was buried by the time we got back. The whole experience was intense and actually kind of fun (although it wouldn't have been if we had to be there any longer). When we got in the plane the pilots, who had been sitting in the plane and freezing, cranked the heat. But to us, just being in the plane and out of the wind was a relief. The heat was almost too much.

It still wasn't cold enough to put on our ECW parkas.

It was a great way to end the season. Now all that remains to be done is packing. In 6 hours my luggage goes to the plane, and tomorrow morning I leave The Ice. I can see what draws people here season after season. Life here is uncomplicated and immensely rewarding. While I'm excited to be going home, seeing friends and family, I know I'll miss this place when I'm attempting to cross Lane Ave in Columbus at rush hour in three weeks.

But so it goes, until next year, anyway. For now, it's off to summery, sunny New Zealand to give myself just a taste of the mountains and the sea before heading back to the landlocked, flat expanse whence I came.