Bummin' around CHC

Christchurch….I love CHC! It is such a beautiful city and I am so looking forward to spending some time here. First thing this morning, we had to go back to the CDC to be fitted for all our gear that we are taking down to the ice with us. We had to be there at 9 am, and the shuttle was going to pick us up at about 8:15. So funny thing, I am staying on the 5th floor and Carol is staying on the 3rd floor. I had talked to her about a half hour before we needed to leave and I was going to come down to her room when I was ready because she had the food that we had gotten the day before for breakfast. So I got all ready to go, got on the elevator and got off at the third floor. I marched myself all the way down to the end of the hallway where her room was, and proceeded to knock on the door. I could hear the hairdryer running and thought to myself, “Man, is she just now drying her hair? She should be all ready to go by now.” Well I knocked again because she was not responding, and again, and once more. I finally heard the dryer go off, and stood waiting for about thirty seconds, preparing to give her a hard time for not being ready to go. The door swung open and it was not Carol who answered, but Jeremy, one of the other production cooks, who looked at me and said, “What’s up?” I looked at him in utter confusion, the first thoughts running through my head were, “What is he doing in Carol’s room?” Then my eyes landed on the lovely little number next to the door which said 426, not 326, which was Carol’s room number. All the meanwhile stuttering and stammering, I…um…hi….I’m….um…on the…wrong floor! Uh….you have…the same room number as Carol…only a floor up from hers. Um…whoops. Oh man, I could not stop laughing as I went down the hall back to the elevator. Jeremy is someone that we have been hanging out with, both in Denver and during our travels, I had no idea which room he was staying in and find it very hilarious that I found it by accident.
Anyway, after that fun incident, we headed down to the CDC to get our ECW(extreme cold weather) gear. What they do is, they take the measurements that you sent of yourself in the piles of paperwork that you have to fill out initially, and give you two big bags filled with all sorts of gear. You try it all on, make sure everything fits, and is in good working order. If you need to exchange anything, you just take it up to the counter and trade it in. I think the stuff the put in my bags were: a pair of bib snow pants, 2 pairs of fleece pants, 3 fleece jackets, 6 pairs of socks, a big pair of boots, 2 pairs of gloves and a glove liner, a pair of mittens, various hats, neck gaters and goggles, and of course, the big jacket. I only kept about half of the gear, because I won’t be working outside I won’t be needing it constantly, and I didn’t want to have to haul all that stuff down with me. I also brought some of my own stuff, like hats and goggles so I didn’t need two pairs of things like that. Also in my bags were four pairs each of chef jackets and pants.
The two bags that your gear comes in are for you carry on baggage and your boomerang bag. The boomerang bag is for you to pack enough stuff in to get you by for a few days in case the weather gets bad after they check your bags in. After you give them your big bags, the palletize them and will not take them off the plane once they have been loaded. The boomerang bags are the last one to go on, so that if you don’t wind up making it to McMurdo that day, or the next few days, you have enough stuff to get you through. Sometimes the weather will turn sour after the plane has already left CHC, if this happens they will turn the plane around and come back. They call it a boomerang. They told us the record for boomerangs is 7, yuck! I can’t imagine! Because by the time you went through the whole process of getting in your gear, checking in, flying, and then turning around and coming back, most of the day is shot. And it’s not like you could stay up late to enjoy the city, because you have to get up at 4 in order to be at the CDC on time. Not a fun thing. Hopefully there will be no boomerangs in our future. If we are going to go and don’t get to stay longer than planned in CHC I would rather make it there in one trip.
After finishing at CDC, we were off to explore the city. Carol, Jeremy and I wandered around together for most of the day. We had lunch at this Turkish place that was really good(we wanted to go to a fish and chip place and had one recommended by one of the hotel staff, but found out upon arriving there that it was only open in the evenings), got some coffee from the 2nd best espresso shop in NZ, or at least so the window told us, and then headed to the botanic gardens. We stopped in a few shops along the way, Carol bought a few charms for her bracelet and a nice purple fleece from earth, sea and sky (NZ company). After poking our way along for a bit, Jeremy headed off to try and find this store that someone had told him about and C and I went to the gardens. CHC is called the garden city of NZ and it truly is. There are beautiful flowers all throughout the city, but the botanic gardens are amazing. It was still a little early in the season for everything to be in full bloom, but there was still plenty to see. The gardens are acres and acres big, we walked just a small portion of it. It reminded me of a grand estate for some palace or something along those lines. I would love to spend more time just wandering through there.
CHC is a great city and I’m really looking forward to spending some time here, C and I already have a long list of restaurants that we want to eat at. Unfortunately, that may have to wait. It looks like we are going to be leaving tomorrow, right on schedule. There is stormy weather blowing into CHC, it has already started to rain here, but it sounds like the weather at McMurdo is just dandy. L No free time in CHC for us I guess. Oh well, I can look forward to coming back here at the end of the season.
To finish off our last night in CHC, we, Jeremy, Carol and I, went back to the fish and chip place that we tried to go to before and had dinner. It was a bit pricey, but very tasty none the less.
The time change has still not fully taken hold of me, I’m still a little behind at times, but it is getting better.
Well, in the morning, the shuttle picks us up at the hotel at 5:15, so I will be up at 4 to get my stuff ready to go.
Tomorrow-Antarctica!