Update #1
28 Dec. 2004
We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, yesterday morning. It was a clear, cool and beautiful day here, everything very green and lush in the parks and the botanical garden in the city center. This scenery was a big contrast to the cold, gray conditions we left behind in the states, where it is the middle of winter. Here, though, we are in the southern Hemisphere and it is the middle of summer.
All four us—me, my student Stephen, Larry Coats and Jurek Smykla, flew from different parts of the states on Xmas morning. We all met up in the airport in Los Angeles that night for our flight to New Zealand. This flight left at 8:30 pm on the 25th, took about 12 hours, but because we crossed the International Date Line in the night, we actually arrived on the morning of the 27th. We will gain back the day we lost at the end of the season, when we fly back north.
Here in Christchurch we will have 1.5 days to recover from the flights and enjoy the green scenery before heading into the Antarctica early on the morning of the 29th. Christchurch is a nice city with a central square where there is usually something of interest taking place—music, dancing, playing chess on the life-sized chess board, etc. There’s lots of good food here too, but Thai, Indian, and sushi restaurants are the most common.
While walking the city, we stopped by the statue of Robert Falcon Scott, the British explorer who was the second person to reach the South Pole in 1912, having been beaten there by his rival, Roald Amundsen, by about four weeks! Scott and his men were weak and hungry when they finally completed the 1600 km trek to the Pole and all of them died on the way back. Thus, he is immortalized in Antarctic history for his epic journey. Each year I have been in Christchurch, I stop at this statue for a photo with my crew.
This year, my crew consists of my student, Stephen Loiacono (on right), an undergraduate biology student from UNCW. He will help me with my field investigations and conduct his own research project on the side. In addition, I have Larry Coats (second from left) with me again. He is an expert mountaineer/first-aider who has accompanied me on many of my expeditions since the mid 1980s—a valuable member of the team and a good friend. Last is Jurek Smykla (left), a Polish botanist who joined my team last year for collaborative research on plants and plant succession that occurs on ground disturbed by penguins after they abandon a site where they have been breeding for many years. Constant trampling of the ground by penguins each year at a breeding colony prevents plants (mainly moss, algae, and lichens) from growing on the surface. After the area is abandoned, however, plants can grow freely and often grow in abundance from the enrichment of nutrients in the soil from the penguin guano deposited there over the years. I met Jurek when I was doing research near the Polish station on King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula, in 2001/02, and he has been a great team member and colleague, helping with all the work.
So, now we are ready to depart for Antarctica early tomorrow morning. We will land on the ice by McMurdo Station, if the weather holds, in the early afternoon of the 29th. The flight usually takes about 6-7 hours from Christchurch. We will fly in a LC-130, a military cargo plane, and we will be packed in like sardines! These flights are not known for their comfort, but it is only temporary and it is the best plane to be on for this location. After we get settled at McMurdo, I will post new updates on the progress of our research project.
Steve Emslie