Week 1 Hobart to McMurdo Station

 It has been a dream of mine for at least the past 15 years to travel to and work in Antarctica. This dream became a reality in early November 2014 after a false start in 2013. 

 

I was employed as an Antarctic Medical Practitioner to assist with the 2014/15 Summer season out of Casey Station, one of the 3 continental Australian stations (Macquarie Island, the Subantarctic Station was where I wintered briefly in 2011).

 

 

On the morning (04:00am) of Wednesday 5th November I embarked on the trip of a lifetime with 38 other expeditioners with the Australian Antarctic Division. We flew on the airbus A319 from Hobart to McMurdo Station, which is an American station. We were to directly transfer to a Hercules LC30 once we landed at Pegasus airfield and fly on to Casey station. Instead we were stranded due to poor weather at Casey and lack of staffing at McMurdo for a week. Which was a blessing in disguise...

 

 

 

 

 

 

McMurdo is supported by the Federal government under the auspice of the National Science Foundation. I had flown on the NSF Hercs in Greenland 4-6 years earlier with my work as an Expedition Doctor with a Danish Science group on the ice sheet.

 

It sits on Ross Island in the NZ territory, housing up to over 1000 personnel during busy Summer periods. It resides under the ever watchful eye of Mt Erebus - an active volcano, infamous for the Air NZ plane crash in 1979 (auspicious year!), which killed all 257 people on board.  

 

The rumour was the recovered bodies were kept in McMurdo gym until repatriation back to their homeland. This was where we all spent the first 3 nights on cot beds until there was room in the dorms with the US personnel moving on to their positions at the South Pole or WAIS Divide remote camp.

 

Mt Erebus was amazing, active since 1972, tucked behind the Mountainous range behind McMurdo.

Regardless, the scenery was stunning. 

 

 

Scott's Hut is on the peninsula just down from station which is currently under restoration by the kiwis, who diligently come over from Scott base, 3km away to voluntarily maintain and document the historic site. It was an honour to see the hut so well preserved after over a century since the fated expedition set out to claim the South Pole (only to be beaten by Amundsen). 

 

St Vincent's Cross is close by, commemorating the lost life of T.Vince in 1904 while he was deployed with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). 

St Vincents Cross with McMurdo in the background.

Not to be outdone, is the cross commemorating Robert Falcon Scott and his men who perished in their race to the Pole in 1902. With McMurdo later establish in 1956.

 

Other sites of interest around the place included:

 

Craig and I in the medical facility with the hyperbaric chamber for diving operations that happen yearly with the US Antarctic Program (USAP).

The chapel, with a Navy chaplain as caretaker, harbours the "Scott's chalice", donated by Scott's great granddaughter. It is housed at the Cathedral in Christchurch over winter and was found intact after the earthquake in 2011 allowing the continued repatriation to Antarctica each year.

The canteen with 24/7 pizza and popcorn! With the recent flights into station there was ample fresh fruit and veg, so we made the most of it knowing that resupply for Casey station was still another 6 weeks away - therefore no, to limited fresh produce.

The local terrain around station with the snow and ice starting to melt caused treacherous conditions, necessitating it's removal with machinery.

 

With the 24 hr pizza, needless to say we looked forward to venturing out and exploring our surrounds. This included Scott Base, run by our Kiwi cousins. They run a substantially smaller Antarctic program to the Americans and restrict visiting times due to resources (the bar) being overwhelmed. Like McMurdo, they also had a shop and sold Antarctic trinkets and good quality clothing. So we spent a bit of time there...

 

 Scott Base (green buildings), 3km from McMurdo a pleasant walk or short 'taxi' trip. A great bar with a nice view, great souvenir shop and friendly locals.

 

Luckily we were given a few opportunities to take in other sights including a trip out to the NASA science centre where the clever people are formulating weather and climate data collectors that weight many tonnes and are designed to hang below a massive hydrogen filled balloon. Hard core science.

 

The Casey crew at McMurdo.

 Finally, 1 week after our arrival and unexpected delay we were off to Willy's runway for our Herc flight to Casey! There were 2 loads of personnel and we were all successful in travelling the 4 1/2 hours to the Casey runway, 20mins out of station (not to be confused with Wilkins runway).