Antarctica Day 01: Transit to Scott Base (NZ)

“The Game is Afoot”

Check in at 0630-0645. APT is the Antarctic Passenger Terminal where the check in resembles the check in at a normal airport except that it’s is a mix of Antarctic New Zealand operational and scientific personnel and mostly US personnel. The US side has a strong military presence but also a significant science presence through the National Science Foundation. We are headed to Scott Base.

Departure lounge at the Antarctic Passenger Terminal

Through my Alfred Wegener Institute collaborations, I am part of the AWI team who is working with Wolfgang Rack who is on faculty at the University of Canterbury and is also the Director of the Antarctic New Zealand Institute for Antarctic research. Our team from AWI is Christian (Haas), Cristina, Clemens and Dan, all seasoned Antarctica engineers and researchers. I am the newbie here.

Out to the apron to board the C-17 aircraft which is a USAF-operated system.

C-17 is quite a large aircraft. Call sign ICE-11.

Once aboard, seating is arranged down the sides and at the front. It’s massive. And loud (everyone had ear protectors or noise cancelling headphones). Lunch was provided – including a Freddo 🙂 There was a chance to buy USAF swag en route (not sure that swag is to be purchased by definition, but hey ho). Scientists were nosed into their laptops while the military were sleeping or watching movies on their devices.

After about 4.5 hours flying we started to see signs of ice and soon after landed at the New Zealand Ice Runway Airfield (NZIR).

My first step onto the Antarctic continent

We were lucky with the weather on arrival. It was a super clear day with great views of Mt. Erebus (3792 m asl), the second largest mountain on the continent and the southernmost active volcano (77.5 degrees south).

From the ice runway, we boarded a big red bus that was a tractor-trailer with the trailer a rather grand school-bus type of affair.

Transfer to Scott Base on the big red bus.

We were welcomed by a superb AntNZ team that introduced us to the base and set out what the expectations would be for the following two days. Of course, we are at around 78 degrees south at the start of November. The sun quit its setting on 20 October so we are in full on daylight.