What Better Place to be Delayed than New Zealand

Monday started at 3:30 a.m. when I woke to shower, pack and check out of the hotel to meet the shuttle over to CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) to depart for Antarctica from the US Antarctic Terminal. However, just before grabbing my luggage and heading to the lobby, I got a call from the hotel staff, who so pleasantly informed me in his Kiwi (New Zealanders are referred to as Kiwis) accent, that our pick-up time had been delayed until “a quarter past seven.” Thus far on the trip, I have yet to hesitate when given the opportunity to sleep, and so I went back to bed.



En route to the terminal at 7:20 a.m. our shuttle driver received a call come over the radio indicating that we’d only be at CDC long enough to be issued an additional days worth of travel money - which meant our flight had yet again been delayed. It also meant we’d be spending another day and night in Christchurch. Oddly, no one complained.

I’ve enjoyed the extra time in Christchurch (I got a total of three extra days: Saturday/Sunday/Monday), especially with the benefit of $75/pay incidental money which more than covers food and transportation expenses. However, the anticipation of actually making it to the ICE combined with the exhaustion of so much travel, had made me slightly prickly on the surface.



Just after lunch on my second day in New Zealand, I had the good fortune of running into Sharona (a 3-year veteran of the Antarctic program) who shared my desire to visit the Botanic Gardens. While enjoying beautiful sunny and warm weather, we perused a wide spectrum of conversation topics, discovered each other’s passions and chatted up our commonalities. We even started a new tradition: taking pictures of coffee art, as we enjoyed plenty of good coffee and other culinary delights the Kiwis offered.