Travel to McMurdo

I suppose I'm telling you the story about my journey out of chronological order this year.  I wrote about getting warm clothes in New Zealand below, but here's how my trip began.

I left Blacksburg, Virginia (where Virginia Tech is located) at 1:30 pm on December 1, eastern standard time (EST).  Michigan and Virginia are both in the eastern time zone.  I first had a 45 minute car ride from Blacksburg to the airport in Roanoke.  I then took an airplane from Roanoke to Charlotte, North Carolina and got on another plane to fly across the country to Los Angeles, California.  I got on a plane in LA at 11 pm on December 1 in the pacific time zone, and 14 hours later I landed in Aukland, New Zealand at 10 am on December 3.  The time in New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of EST.  That means if it is 1 am in Michigan or Virginia, it is 7pm in New Zealand.  If it is 4 pm in Michigan or Virginia, then it is 18 hours later in New Zealand, which is 10 am the next day.  So when I got on the plane, it was actually 2 am EST on December 2, and it landed 14 hours later, which was 4 pm EST on December 2 (which is 10 AM on December 3 in New Zealand time).  As you might imagine, flying through so many time zones can get really confusing.

I then took a flight from Aukland to Christchurch, New Zealand, which is where the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) has a station where people on their way to McMurdo stop to get their clothes and have an orientation.  Up to this point, all of the flights were on normal, commercial airlines that anyone can buy a ticket for.

The flights that go from Christchurch to McMurdo are operated by the United States military, and those flights are very different from commercial flights.  Only people who have been approved by the USAP are allowed on those the airplanes traveling from Christchurch to McMurdo.  Some of the requirements to make it on the flight were to pass a physical exam (which I had back home during the summer) and a dental exam (which I also had back home in the summer) because they only want to send healthy people to such a remote place.  There are not very many doctors or dentists at McMurdo.  They also require everyone on the flight to have special extreme cold weather (ECW) gear.  The flight from Christchurch to McMurdo was on a C17 (a type of cargo jet).
  

Cargo inside the C17 cargo jet

Riding in a large cargo jet is a little different than riding in a regular commercial jet.  We sat along the side of the plane in fold-out seals.  We didn't really have windows or aisles.  And cargo that was being shipped to McMurdo was secured right in front of us, in the center of the plane.

The view from one of the few very tiny windows in the C17

A picture of the C17 jet on the ice at McMurdo

We landed on the Ross Ice Shelf near McMurdo, which is on Ross Island.

People walking on the ice from the C17 to Ivan the Terrabus

We then took a large orange bus with enormous wheels from the ice runway to McMurdo.  The bus ride was about 45 minutes.

People getting on Ivan the Terrabus

...and finally, around 12 pm on December 5 (New Zealand time) I was in McMurdo.