October 31, 2005

It’s finally over! We left pole on the October 28th at 11:00 AM and made the three hour flight to MacTown. When we arrived our friends Tom, Andrea and Peter surprised us by showing up at the airfield. It was a short visit but a good one. Tom brought some chilled guiness which tasted “oh so good” after drinking the old stale beer of South Pole for two years. About 20 sips into my fresh beer the bus driver said it was time to go so we loaded into a bus that was too small for all of us, so Jodi, several others and I had to stand. The driver took us about 200 yards where we waited for an hour, feeling cramped, cranky, and stuffed like sardines we became impatient. The driver was a young girl who was relatively new to the program and hadn’t become one of the jaded, bitter cynical veterans that she had become responsible for. She was telling her passengers how she wasn’t used to the cold of Mac town and had to wear thermal underwear everyday. It was 20 degrees and we were all enjoying the balmy temperatures wondering how the driver could ever be cold and all rolling our eyes thinking “grow some hair!” Fortunately, as with all things in life, our stop at the corner of hell and purgatory ended and the pilots indicated we could approach the plane. I am not sure whether I departed or was thrown free of the bus but once outside I grabbed a sack lunch for and Jodi and I and entered the largest airplane I had ever seen. The inside was a cavern with a polished aluminum floor, plastic injection molded walls with strap, chain and hook holders and insulated pipes overhead. The plane appeared to be a flying sport utility vehicle; I was very impressed. Jodi and I took seats along the outside walls and were in the process of getting settled in when they announced we would have to return to the bus because of a weather delay in Christchurch. I could not believe it, how could such a mighty airplane and the United States Air Force be at the mercy of weather. Grudgingly we returned to the buss and went to MacTown, where they let us out at the Mac Ops building amongst all the cargo and baggage we sat waiting for word of when our flight might leave. Fortunately Andrea heard about our delay and met us so we could visit some more. It was nice seeing a friendly face after the harsh faces of pole. About 5:00 PM they let us get some dinner from the galley and told us to monitor channel 7 on their closed circuit television system. Andrea walked us by her office and showed us where Peter works. I was amazed at the people rushing around and the general buzz of the place, it was like a city. Jodi and I then went to the galley and grabbed some dinner, Andrea joined us later and we visited for awhile, talking about the trials and tribulations of winters. At 6:45pm we returned to the Ops building and were transported to the airfield. I entered the C17 and was just as impressed as I was the first time but this time I was really excited to notice 120V power plugs along the wall where I could power my laptop and watch movies. I set up my inflight entertainment system and waited for the crew to finish flight preparations. Around 8:00 PM we finally departed with the roar of 4 very magnificent jet engines that made the occupants of the airplane know that this airplane could not only fly but also it could also haul ass. It felt upon lifted off as if the earth had decided it no longer liked the airplane and evicted it from its surface. We zoomed to cruise where Jodi went to sleep and I watched Madagascar, and West Wing. At 2:30 AM we landed in Christchurch, collected our baggage and were processed by customs. After that Jodi and I walked to the CDC so we could return our cold weather gear and begin our vacation. Unlike last year they had shuttle buses waiting to wisk us off to our hotels once we had completed returning the gear. At 3:30 AM we were finally in our hotel room and ready for bed. We slept until 11:30 am and then walked to Dux where we had some lunch and ran into some other polies. We sat there all afternoon, enjoying the fat air, watching it rain and enjoying conversation that had the sound of excitement and possibilities instead of the of the all to familiar sound of cynicism. During the day we had heard Mike Houle or “Meho” was having a party and he stopped by Dux to spread the word. We were not to sure about going but decided to venture that way to check things out. It was about a 2 mile walk and when we arrived we met his wife Christine, two kiwis named Stefan and Tim and an American named Bonna. They were a bunch of fun, Stefan and Bonna bantered back and forth making us all laugh over a bunch of Steinlagers. Throughout the evening various polies would walk up the drive way with groceries in hand and join the fun. Meho fired up the grille and cooked some chicken, steaks, sausage and hotdogs. It was nice eating outside from the grille much like Americans do on the 4th of July. Once Jodi and I had our fill and it was getting late we walked the 2 miles to our hotel and went to bed. I have to say our first 24 hours off the ice were pretty good!