After arriving at my hotel in Christchurch around 1 a.m., I was up and on a shuttle to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) at 8:15 a.m. There we had an orientation session in the US Antarctic Passenger Terminal and were issued our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear. (You'll notice that those of us in science enjoy our TLAs (three letter acronyms)!) The gear includes BIG RED (my favorite parka), wind pants, hats, gloves, goggles, fleece base layers, and bunny boots.  The orientation procedures included a computer check to make sure that we don't bring any viruses that could infect the network in McMurdo as well as a form to make sure we had all received our flu vaccinations.

After the CDC, we had the rest of the day off. I met up with my friend Eric from the University of Arizona, his wife Valerie, and my colleague Craig, who was also heading down to the ice with me. Upon my request, we wandered down to the Rose Garden. Since there are no plants in Antarctica, I really wanted one last chance to smell the roses (literally!). From there we walked through a park in bloom with beautiful flowers and birds to the center of town.

Due to a series of devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 the town center was cordoned offthe last time I was in Christchurch. The city has been rebuilding slowly, and now the center has been reopened and most of the unsafe, damaged buildings have been imploded. There's a cathedral in the center (shown below) with reinforcements. It is still not safe to enter, and the only picture I could take was through a chain link fence. From there, we went to the only cathedral left standing -- called the Cardboard Cathedral. I honestly do not understand the reason it is called the Cardboard Cathedral, but it was the only thing left undamaged in the town center after the earthquakes.

We had an early dinner at Maharaja Indian Restaurant next to our hotel. To my disappointment, my last sunset until January was clouded over and I didn't see much. I will have to wait until I return to Christchurch for the next one. I went to bed early for a 4:45 a.m. pickup for my ice flight!

TAGS:STO-2, ANTARCTICA, MCMURDO, ASTRONOMY, ASTROPHYSICS, BALLOONING

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jenna Kloosterman, NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow

  Jenna Kloosterman is a NASA postdoctoral program fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, researching new instruments for radio astronomy. For the past two years, she has worked on the Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory II, or STO-2, a balloon-born observatory designed to study how stars are born. During the Antarctic summer of 2011-2012, she spent 10 weeks at McMurdo Station for STO’s first flight and returns in November 2015 for a second. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and both a master’s degree in astronomy and a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Arizona. Outside of work, she enjoys yoga, hiking, and modern dance, as well as serving as co-chair of the Caltech Postdoc Association.