2010 in pictures

Here is our year summarized in a few tiny photos. If you click on the picture, you can see a larger version of the image!

Merry Christmas!

For those who celebrate this holiday - Merry Christmas!
For those that don't celebrate Christmas - Happy Holidays!

We are back home and I'm loving being back with my kitties and my man. Life is good. Enjoy it!

Diving in the tropics is a piece of cake

Sunrise from the dive boat

We have been having a blast the past few days - despite all the attempts from the nasty rain gods to cramp our style. We have been diving, snorkeling, beach bumming, driving on crazy narrow roads, waterfall searching, blowhole watching, and bird watching. Now I'm going to bed! But here are a few pictures from our holiday in rainy Maui. More stories will follow when I'm not falling asleep. But I will note - it is awesome to wear 12 pounds instead of 46 pounds of weight when diving. And one thin hood (to try and stay warm in these not so hot waters) instead of two thick hoods and a latex hood on top of that. I could flip upside down in a second here and listen to whales singing. But I could only see maybe 100-150 ft. In Antarctica I could see forever.

See the frogfish?

Julie inspects an artificial reef

Jay discovers the 'Iao Needle

Rocky coastline of West Maui

Pale white Washingtonian

J&J back together again!

Finally - J&J have started up adventures together again. =) I loved Antarctica, in fact the only thing that sucked about it was being away from my man. So we are happy to be together again on Maui! Yesterday and today we just sat on the beach and did nothing at all. It has been fantastic. Tomorrow we are ramping up the tourism and going to check out some cool places in Maui. We booked ourselves for a dive on Sunday with a dive shop that seems really interested in biology. That sounds pretty exciting to us!
More stories to follow....

Oh yummy passionfruit how I love thee

View of Diamondhead from my flight to Maui

Dunedin

Two albatross bid me farewell! A great way to leave Stewart Island....

The train station in Dunedin

Breakfast with Heather at a lovely cafe called "the good oil"

I leave lovely New Zealand tomorrow and head to Hawaii to see my man! I can't wait!! But I have been enjoying my time in this awesome country. I spent last night with Heather, a friend of ours who just moved from Auckland to Dunedin. This worked out well because I would not had have time to get to Auckland to visit her and our friend David. (If you go way back in the blog to around March or April 2008 you will find our blog posts about staying with David and Heather)

I haven't done much except ride buses since I last posted! But some more photos from NZ are posted under my older picasa account - the link is on the right side of the screen - click on the link that says "globalscents"

I have big plans for tomorrow. I still get US postage rates as a polar program participant. So I am going shopping! I plan on buying a ton of vegemite and shipping it home to last me for years in America, land with no yeast extract spreads. I might get some manuka honey while I'm at it. Yum.

KIWI

Well people. It finally happened. I saw a kiwi in the wild. Not one kiwi, but TWO. And we saw the same male twice. So three sightings in one awesome awesome evening. I love Stewart Island. This is such a cool place to be if you are a birder. I've seen albatross, mollymawks, one yellow-eyed penguin, little blue penguins, two kiwis, tuis, kereru (NZ pigeon), tomtits, kakas (a big parrot) and just wait because the list will get longer tomorrow! I'm heading back to Ulva Island. Jay and I visited this island when we were here over two years ago. There are no rats, stoats, cats, etc.... on the island. Hence the birds, which did not evolve with mammalian predators, thrive here. I plan on spending the entire day staring at birds.

I've gone hiking every day in the forest. I love listening to the birds, especially the tuis. I've also heard kiwis twice (imagine a woman screeching and you've got a kiwi noise). It is magical being back in these strange and ancient forests. I knew I loved New Zealand, but now I know how much I loved it because hearing, seeing, and smelling the forest is like a homecoming. What a place!

Buller's mollymawk

Lee Bay

Here he is! My second kiwi sighting (I didn't get an image of the female we saw first)

Tui

Of bubbles and birds

Just before leaving Antarctica Kevin, Kamille, and I scrambled up Observation Hill for one last view of McMurdo Sound and McMurdo Station. It was a clear day and the views of all of the mountains were fantastic. But mountains were not the only treat we received on the climb. While climbing up Ob Hill, I noticed some bright white dots moving quickly over the top of the hill. We all wondered if those fast moving dots were snow petrels, but dismissed it because they are a rare sight to see around McMurdo. But when Kevin and I were chilling out at the top and taking in the view, a snow petrel flew by! And then another one! And another one! They kept coming….. our jaws were on the rocks beneath our feet. What gorgeous birds and what a fabulous way to say goodbye to the Ice.

Snow petrel

Julie on top of Observation Hill with Henry and Jackson's water drop!

Our flight back was scary, as usual. But landing was interesting because it was warm and raining and almost dark in Christchurch. These were all natural things we had forgotten about temporarily. It felt awesome.

I put all my stuff into storage at the US Antarctic Program office that I didn’t need for traveling around New Zealand. Then we all headed off to the bar. We (Paul, Kamille, Kevin, and I) had a crazy last night together in Christchurch. That story will be told in pictures below. Holy moly.

We had only been in the bar for a minute or two when I started talking to a Kiwi. He noticed that I was talking to Paul about getting a bottle of bubbly to celebrate a great season in the Antarctic. This Kiwi didn't approve of the bubbly that the bar had to offer and told us so. Then he said, "hold on, let me go to my place and bring you some real champagne." O.K. So he returns. He returned holding a box with a 2002 bottle of Dom Perignon! Ummmmm. I am not kidding. Next thing I know we are all sitting around a small table in the empty bar with this guy we just met (nickname = "Grumpy"), the bartender ("I can't believe I'm serving this"), and four scientists from the Antarctic. The photo above shows how unhappy I was about having to try this champagne from Grumpy.


In case you don't believe me here is the bottle. So we have great conservations about how awesome Kiwis are and Grumpy tells us how awesome Americans are, although we all have a good rant about Republicans. Next thing we know, the champagne is all gone. Damn it was good. Grumpy says - "would ya like another bottah?" Silence around the table.... of course we do, but do we dare say yes? Grumpy takes off to his place - just one building over, and reappears with ANOTHER bottle of Dom Perignon, same 2002 vintage. And not only does Grumpy appear with the super expensive champagne, he is carrying a life size cardboard cutout of Obama. He just wanted to make his point to us that he loves Obama. He should know, he got loaded in the US owning some big transportation company named Target (not the superstore). I have a great image in my head of Grumpy walking down the sidewalk with a box containing Dom Perignon in one arm and Obama in the other.

Here we are! Grumpy, Julie, Obama (he needed a drink more than any of us), and Paul

Paul cracking up

Obama, Kamille, and Kevin. Taking in the night.... sooooo after we hung out with Obama and drank our second bottle of crazy expensive bubbly Grumpy invited us up to his pad next door. He had been telling Paul about some of the artwork he owned and wanted to show us. Next thing we know we are in a lovely apartment (suite?). Rich folks in NZ don't go and buy the biggest house possible and waste tons of energy in the process. This place was small, very tasteful, and filled with warmth. We loved it. The artwork was amazing.....and I recognized one piece in particular that made the night even more unreal. He had a piece hanging in his kitchen that had been painted by an Asian elephant. I recognized it because Jay and I have been to Chang Mai (Thailand) and watched elephants painting. Pretty neat. Turns out that Grumpy loves animals (this got Paul really excited). Grumpy bought an African elephant and rescued her and brought her back to a happy and healthy elephant. She lives on the North Island. Pretty neat eh? So Grumpy gave all of us printed out pictures of his pet elephant. Then he walked us all the way back to our B&B before saying goodbye. I'm pretty sure Kiwis are the most generous, honest, fun, and loving people in the world. The next morning Kevin said to me "was that real?". Or maybe Paul said that...we were all in a daze. How cool is that story?

I got up early the morning after that awesome night and said goodbye to Kevin. I missed Paul and Kamille and I was very sad about that. I hope I see all of them again. What a great team. I hopped on a bus to Invercargill with plans to catch a ferry the following day to Stewart Island. I don’t have a ton of time in New Zealand, so I have opted to spend pretty much all of it on Stewart Island. I loved this island when Jay and I came a few years ago and I dreamed of coming back. This is one of the few places in New Zealand where you can try to see a kiwi in the wild! You know me and my birds. After two long days of buses and a ferry ride, I’ve arrived on this gorgeous dot south of the South Island. How suiting that an albatross greeted me. I left Antarctica on the wings of the snow petrel and arrived on Stewart Island escorted by an albatross. I could only be happier if Jay was with me. This island is grand.

Heading off the Ice and back to New Zealand!

Team IceAged
David, Bob, Kevin, Stacy, Julie
Kamille, Paul, Jennifer, Tina, DJ

I am leaving the Ice today! We finished our work early, packed up our stuff, analyzed data, and had a lot of fun these last few days.

Here are a few funny pictures from the last week of work here! I'll write more once I get to NZ! Yipee! Only 10 more days until I see Jay in Hawaii.

Jennifer, Julie, and Kevin near Little Razorback Island after a dive

Speak, See, and Hear no evil - at Bratina Island

Antarctic hat!

I finished (almost) knitting my Antarctic hat! I wanted to make a funky hat with the shape of Antarctica on top of my head. And I finally managed to finish it, almost. I have some fleece I was thinking of sewing into it to make it warmer. In these photos it wasn't quite finished - I had some geographic problems to finish. I made two peninsulas (whops) and the Ross Sea is way too big. I have since fixed these and will have to post more photos of that once I'm done with the fleece lining. The hat is awesome, if I do say so myself!


Much news to report! We are all leaving the ice early. We finished our work and are getting booted because it is too expensive to keep us here to simply play. My plans to go home can't change in terms of dates because I am meeting Jay in Hawaii on the 17th (maybe the 15th). So I will just have to bum around New Zealand (oh damn) until my flight to Maui. I am really going to miss this place though. Antarctica is gorgeous and I have appreciated every view I get of the mountains and the ice. I love the skuas, I love the diving, and I love most of the people down here. What an experience! But, I can't wait to see Jay!

Here is a picture from the inside of Shackleton's hut. There are husky prints on the wooden beam here. Their dogs must have left their prints on the wood before it was used as a shelf. The photo below is a piece of wood with Shackleton's signature on it. Wow.

Skua barf. A whole fish!

The Barne Glacier in gorgeous light

Cape Royds

Finally! I was able to see some penguins here in Antarctica! Yipeeeee! And, to top things off, we visited Shackleton's Nimrod Hut and stop by the Barne Glacier. Things got even better when we arrived back in Mac Town because the store finally restocked the beer. That's right, a serious emergency had occurred - McMurdo Station had been out of beer for a WEEK! Eke. We all survived, but we are happy to have some beer back on the station. Now, on to other important information.

We spent hours in a lovely Pisten Bully (snocat) driving very slowly over the sea ice to get to Cape Royds. We had to cross some wide cracks in the sea ice, but the Pisten Bully can handle that stuff just fine. We stopped in front of the massive Barne Glacier to take in the very blue view. I can't believe how close you can stand next to glacier here - but they are frozen solid and are very stable. We were practically on top of the glacier and it was very imposing and gorgeous.

The Barne Glacier

We continued on past the glacier, over some really bumpy ice, and eventually made it to Cape Royds. This spot became famous because of Ernest Shackleton but it also happens to be the home of the most southern population of Adelie penguins. I am sure many of you have heard of Shackleton's famous Endurance journey that occurred in 1914-1917. But many of you may not know that Shackleton had visited the Antarctic as the leader of the Nimrod Expedition starting in 1908. During this time his crew built the Nimrod Hut at Cape Royds. From here the crew split into various parties and did an amazing amount of totally dangerous things - like climbing Mt.Erebus, trying to get to the South Pole, getting to the Magnetic South Pole, and reaching and studying the geology of the Dry Valleys.

Somehow they survived all of this - here is a great quote that means so much more to me now.

“For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a winter journey, Wilson, for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time.” Apsley Cherry-Garrard, ‘Worst Journey in the World’. British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition 1910 – 1913 led by Captain Scott.

Inside the Nimrod Hut

Mt. Erebus and the Nimrod Hut

Everything in the hut is unique and interesting. I felt like I stepped back in time....

After walking through the hut, which was being renovated by a group of Kiwis, we headed out to the Adelie penguin colony. This is a special site that is visited a lot by people, so we stayed outside of the marked boundaries to give the penguins some space. But we could smell and hear and watch everything that was going on just fine. What funny animals! Man, I could watch and laugh at them all day.

Watch this video I took: http://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/AntarcticaNovember#5542659464809446290

Or this one: http://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/AntarcticaNovember#5542665355577895730

Look at my egg!

Julie and the Adelie penguins

Lots more in video and photographs are here, just scroll to the bottom for the newest images: http://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/AntarcticaNovember#

Evans Wall - Ice Wall

Yesterday was our Sunday, so we got to sleep in and then play! Our work is going really well, so I think work stress and tensions are easing and we are being given some free time to explore this awesome place. Kamille arrived late because she replaced John when he was sent home with kidney stones. So she missed our fun dive out at Evans Wall. Well, this just wouldn't do! She had to go on the coolest dive in the world! So Jennifer and I volunteered to go out and be her dive buddies and this time we took a camera. It was an awesome day. We puttered out on the Tucker to Evans Wall, jumped in the water, and stared at a huge wall of ice and rocks for 45 minutes. It is such an awesome dive. Sadly for the camera, the sun was blocked by the glacier above, so we were diving in a shadow - making the dive a bit darker than it was when we were there over a month ago. So there are some spots in the video where the camera doesn't know what it is looking at - if it is all blue and hazy - that is an ice wall. You will get the idea once you watch the entire video (go here to watch: http://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/AntarcticaUnderwater#5542097865579051250). We ended the day by stopping at the ice caves again because they are so beautiful. And the entire time, of course, Mt. Erebus was smoking and dominating the view.

Tomorrow we are going to Cape Royds to visit Shackleton's hut and hopefully see some penguins! Cross your fingers that the wildlife behaves. Speaking of birds, I love the skuas around here. When we are underwater we are surrounded by gorgeous living critters. But above the water, there isn't as much going on in terms of living organisms. Except for birds! And the skuas have arrived! These are a big gull with gorgeous markings on the wings. They love to eat and they appear to be very good predators (killing penguin chicks) and scavengers (eating anything dead around like seal pups, placentas, etc). I think they are totally cool birds.....

Skua!

Carnivorous sponge (the long white lines) at Evans Wall

Jennifer on the ice wall

Check out this link to see the ice bottom too: http://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/AntarcticaUnderwater#5542087190521661234