Final Flight Before Adventurous Beginnings

“One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.”

– William Feather

I woke up knowing it would be an action packed day of travel and possibly a stressful day if we are to "Boomerang."

Boomeranging a flight: Antarctica's weather is very unpredictable. Conditions can change from ok to terrible within an hour at any given moment. It takes 3-4 hours to get to Pegasus Airstrip from Christchurch, New Zealand. While in the air anything can happen to the weather on the ground. So when the plan takes off they fly almost all the way to Pegasus and communicate with the ground personnel there. That's when the plane will get clearance to land or not. If the weather has picked up and it's unsafe to land the plane will be sent back to New Zealand to wait for better conditions. This process has been described as, "Very Crappy!" and "A pain in the ass!" By many people who have gone through it. One reason being that you have one or many days to live out of your "Boomerang Bag."

Boomerang Bag: When packing the plane there are 3+ bags that everyone takes with them.
A stowaway bag (or two) that is given to plane personnel and stowed in the back of the plane until landing in Antarctica.
A carry-on bag that contains your camera, music player, books, and any ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) Gear that you don't want to wear for the entire flight. This is taken on your person in the plane.
And finally a Boomerang Bag that contains an extra change of clothes or two, toiletries, books, and any other things you might need if you don't make it to Antarctica on the first try.


Luckily for us, we made it on our first try but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After fully packing our various bags and checking out of our rooms we waited in front of our hotel for the shuttle to come get us. Driving to the Antarctic Support Center was nothing special for some people in the van but others were nervous and you can read it off their faces. I sat in the back with my arms crossed and legs leaning together against the right side of the vehicle staring out the window unblinkingly. Once we arrived we were given our luggage and sent to the designated changing rooms to put our ECW on and get situated. Afterwards, we checked our luggage in to the New Zealand army personnel who took it to the plane while we waited in the ASC building for one last video and a small briefing. The video was short and all the information mostly a repeat of impertinent information previously discussed with a few bits of new information for today's journey. Once this was finished we filed through the various scanners and took one last shuttle to our plane.

This is a new experience. I've boarded many planes, many of which has been in the last week, but walking down a runway while the plane is warming up and the sun is slowly rising is a new feeling. When you walk up to the side of a massive Boeing C-17 you can feel a number of emotions. I strangely felt profoundly safe. Seeing the American Army look so calm while they tinkered around the plane was very reassuring.

For some reason this plane ride seems to take significantly longer than it should. There isn't much conversation during the entire flight due to the roaring of the engine and people mostly keeping to themselves. There is a few windows on either side of the plane that you can look out of and it's quite beautiful. There is one that looks out just below the wing and one of the huge engines.

Once we were set to land everyone put their ECW on and waited anxiously. The plane came to a stop and we got ready to step outside on a new continent. When the door opens there is a swift breeze that enters the plane and clears the scent from inside and catches you off guard a bit. This was it, I had officially made it to Antarctica! Now it's time for the adventure to truly begin...