Coming Home ????

Well, it's New Year's Eve here on the Ice, and I know when I'm leaving, but I don't know when I'm coming home. I am scheduled for a flight out of Antarctica, back to New Zealand on Jan 2. The flight will be on a C-130 this time, so it will be much longer (8 hours vs 5 hours) and much more uncomfortable, but oh well, at least I'm leaving. That will put me in Christchurch on Friday evening NZ time, but I do not know when I will be leaving to come back to the States. The word from the travel office is that there are no available flights out of Christchurch until Jan 6, but I will have to wait until I get there to find out for sure. That would put me in New Zealand for 4 days. Before coming to Antarctica, if someone would have offered me a 4 day all expenses paid trip to New Zealand, I would have been more than happy to take it - but now I just really want to get home. Not sure what I will do there with all of the free time, but I have talked to some Kiwis (New Zealanders) here in Antarctica and they gave me some ideas.

Tonight for New Year's Eve, there is a big music festival called Ice Stock. They have a stage set up in town, and there will be live music all the usual New Year's Eve stuff. There are several other parties in town as well, so I probably won't be bored. Tomorrow I have to finish packing all of my stuff. I have what they call "bag drag" at 8:00 tomorrow night. This is when you take all of your luggage to be checked in and weighed and you confirm your flight for the next day. They have had to cancel several flights in the last few days for weather, so hopefully my flight won't get cancelled. I can't wait to get to New Zealand and be warm and see vegetation, but most of all I can't wait for it to be dark at night. I will let everyone know if I get any updates on my travel plans, but probably won't know anything else for a couple of more days.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!!