If you are ever in Christchurch and you are looking for good Pizza…

I have found it. It is at Prags on the corner of Dorchel and Victoria.

The trip to the Ice has been very good to date. I left Denver with the remainder of the Raytheon group on Friday night about 5:20PM Mountain Time. From there we landed at LAX around 6:45PM Pacific Time. Total trip time so far 2:25. After a nice stroll from the domestic terminal to the Tom Bradley International Terminal we boarded a 747-400 headed to Auckland, NZ. Departure time was 9:05PM Friday and our arrival in Auckland was 5:45AM New Zealand time. This flight was 12:40 minutes for a total flight time from Buffalo to date of 19 hours and 15 minutes. Did I mention that it was Sunday morning when we landed??? We skipped right over Saturday like you skip over CSPAN on cable.

With a stop in Auckland comes some quality time with the New Zealand immigration officials. For some strange reason the country of New Zealand has no problem letting me into there country, but will not allow an Apple from the USA enter. Figure that one out??? Actually NZ is very protective about there agriculture and environment. They have Beagles that inspect all people and baggage that come into the country for fresh foods and plants. Processed stuff is acceptable but if it hasn’t been poisoned with preservatives and artificial colors then it is a big problem. I sat in the baggage claim area for 15 minutes and just watched the Beagles work. They are amazing animals and they do there job well. I had an open bag of jelly beans in the top of my backpack and the dog sniffed that area of the pack directly and didn’t even stop to think about the candy. Then from my pack she went on to another Ice bound passenger and tried to climb up the side of the woman’s leg. The dog was very intense about something on the woman. Come to find out she had a fresh apple wrapped in plastic in one of her pockets that she forgot about. So this dog caught it when it was in a pocket, wrapped in plastic and four feet about her head. And amazing sight to see. Next comes inspection of your bags. Again they are looking for environmental contaminates. Any hiking or backpacking equipment is inspected for loose dirt or seeds or anything like that. So you get your luggage from the baggage claim, then run it through the inspection station and then you check it back in for the remainder of your flight.

Once all of the legal paperwork and stuff is completed you get to take another walk to the domestic terminal of the airport. You can take a bus but it is a ½ mile walk and you have been sitting in an airplane for the last 13 hours. Also it is a very nice time to be outside because the sun is just coming up and it is cool out as well. Now we board another flight headed to Christchurch at 9AM and in an hour and twenty minutes we are in Christchurch. So we are at 20 hours and 35 minutes of flight time. Once in CHC we grab a shuttle and head for town. It is about 10 miles from the airport to town. I am staying in a place called Thomas Hotel. It is directly across from Dux D Lux which is a common meeting place for Ice people. Also it is about 2 minutes to the large city park which has the Canterbury Museum and the Botanical gardens. And about 5minutes in the other direction are the City Square and all of downtown.

Christchurch is a beautiful city with nice buildings and lots of parks, gardens and green space. And this time of the year is particularly beautiful because it is spring, so the Tulips and Daffodils are out and everything is starting to bloom. It is like early May in western NY. The sun feels good and it is about 60 degrees in the afternoon. On Sunday I started with a shower once I got to the hotel at noon. And after that I took a good afternoon nap to try to get my body happy again. In the middle of the afternoon I took a long walk through the city park along the river. After that I found the pizzeria with the NY pizza and then wandered around town until about 9PM. Then I went back to the room and watched Rugby for an hour or two. The World Cup of Rugby is going on currently in Paris and it is a big deal everywhere but in the USA. But I did get a chance to watch the USA against South Africa in a first round game. The US was crushed, but in a game that was supposed to be a huge blowout the US hung in pretty well and made a game out of it for a while before they lost.

I am about to leave for the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) for my ECW fitting. (All together now ECW= Extreme Cold Weather gear) After that I have the remainder of Monday afternoon off and I will have to be up and ready to fly at 3AM. Our flight will leave CHC for McMurdo about 6AM and it should be about a 5 ½ hour flight. This will put me at about 26 hours of flight time for the trip. We will land on the Ice runway about noon. For those of you long time readers you will know what the Ice runway is. It is the annual runway that is built on the sea ice just outside of McMurdo. So I will have about a two mile ride into town instead of an 18 mile ride from Pegasus runway. Refer back to December 2006 for the descriptions of the different runways. I am excited because Pegasus is the only runway that I have landed or taken off at. Once into town we will have a introduction meeting in the Galley and they we will get out room keys and we are off for the remainder of the day. Then on Wednesday I have to go back to work. Actually I don’t know if I am scheduled to work or not, but I am sure that I will be at the station meeting with everyone and finding out what is going on. I will be working on B shift with Capt. Kroger which will be good. Also I have found out that Paula and I will be staying in Dorm 211 on the second floor this year. This is one of the middle level dorms and it is right next to building 155 which is the Galley and the main building.

Well I have to catch a shuttle in 10 minutes to go to the CDC. I will write again as soon as I get to the Ice.

RJ