Christchurch, NZ, about to fly to Antarctica

Hello-hello,

It's raining, spring rain, here in Christchurch, saturating the many beautiful gardens. Good day for email.

On Friday we finished our search and rescue training with our Kiwi counterparts. They were fun, though at times I really did have difficulty understanding them. For example, they might say that someone had iggs in the tint after having six. Then of course there are the many different words and phrases (which are fun, refreshing) to complicate communication.

With them we are the Joint Antarctic Search and Rescue Team, about a dozen plus total. Their base is about 2 miles from ours and quite a bit smaller.

Three days (2 overnights) of the training was held at a "skifield", one quite a bit different than what we think of in the US. Probably like what US ski areas were 40 (yeah, 40) years ago. It was cool, very rustic (rope tows for which one needs a harness and nutcracker device to hang onto the rope) and would NEVER be able to get a dime of insurance in the US! One actually needs to pay attention to avoid getting hurt (really hurt).

This is where several of us were fascinated with the concept of an alpine parrot: the kia. At this high use place they were quite habituated, like a marmot sometimes (or, based on photos, like what raccoons do when they get inside: unbelievable), and curious. We couldn't even leave the stretcher outside during lunch as the kias will make a mess even of nonfood items. Very curious, and I have to say I enjoyed their "attitude".

They are dark green, like the beech forests here, with some orange undertheir wings and tail, only seen in flight. They are the largest of the parrots and I'm told they have flown off carrying a boot, only to drop it into some inaccessible place. Hold onto your hat.

We worked on litter raises and lowers on snow and scree. On scree (mountain gravel, and in this case: steep) they drive in what are the equivalent of those green steel fence posts for stringing barbed wire. One uses a sledge hammer to drive them a couple feet into the steep scree and tie them off together to make an anchor. It looks sketchy, but it's surprisingly strong.

The last day we drove to the local hills and did a vertical litter raise and lower, overlooking a beautiful sea port (Lyttleton). We also covered crevasse rescue, a bit of first aid and patient packaging, communications, a bit of GPS, and other related stuff. This is my area of weakness for the job, but it's not exactly microbiology and I've been loving learning it.

So that fellow in our team about whom I was a bit concerned (and the others too) rose to the occasion (ie maturity) on the training and now I've decided that he too is a good guy, yea. I quite like our crew. There are 5 of us here now, and our supervisor is on the ice now with another instructor, "the sea ice guy" from whom we'll learn about sea ice (cool!) so we can then teach those who know even less than we do.

Christchurch sports the Canterbury Museum, started 1870, which houses a very nice section on Antarctica and includes many artifacts given to them as early explorations parties returned from the ice (those who did return). Quite a history, the "Heroic Age" of Antarctica exploration of which the familiar Shackleton is merely one of numerous interesting stories. A number of their huts still stand, freeze dried (including part of a dog, still in the collar) on the ice. More on these when I get to explore them. There's one near McMurdo at, you guessed it, Hut Point. Cared for by the Antarctic Heritage Trust.

The museum had a Primus Comet Scout stove from the early part of the last century. Esp. considering the almost-century of time, it was astonishingly similar to some stoves still in use (Optimus suitcase stylestoves). Amazing.

For living in Christchurch we get a stipend, one that covers more than most of us will spend on living expenses. This of course means that we can live lower on the hog (but still quite well, I might add for those who know me too well) and save up cash for our post-ice adventures.

The currency here is a real advance over ours: probably cheaper for the treasury than ours. I quite like the one and two dollar coins (easy to distinguish in the hand, by thickness too) and the bills are made of some rip-proof material. They are colorful so easy to quickly distinguish, and include a small clear window. They also have characters such as penguins, other birds, the queen in her younger years, and even Sir Edmund Hillary on them. Another real bonus is that they have elimated the silly penny. This means that change is simpler, and you don't have to be irritated by the marketing trick of "only $999,999.99". Items are sold in more straightforward units, like a buck.

Ok, that's enough blabbering for now. Tomorrow we pack and deal with some administrative stuff, then Tues we get up at 2am for our flight onto the ice. They like to arrive early for some safety reason... I hope this finds you well.

Love and the Southern Cross, Susan