Joulien flew to the ice shelf Tuesday and installed the station successfully. Unfortunately his support crew blew it (me and the folks at UCI) and accidentally turned the station-remote off remotely; effectively isolating the station. So he flew back to the site on Wednesday and wired up the link permanently. I can imagine the helicopter landing on the windy snow plain, Joulien jumping out with equipment in hand...huddling down next to the station box while the helicopter waited. Quite an adventure! Unfortunately this means he will not be able to return home until the day after Christmas.
So other than being supportive via Skype, I've enjoyed walking around downtown Auckland while staying at the Cozy Kiwi backpacker (a "backpacker" is basically a private hostel for international travelers). Here's a shot down the hall at the Cozy Kiwi.
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The city is full of women in their 20's, many wearing tiny skirts and shorts showing their legs off in the Summer weather. Maybe it's Summer break from College here. I also noticed kids playing in the fountain...there were no kids in Antarctica, so seeing them now is delightful. Here's a shot of a small plaza with a cool fountain below bushes of evening star jasmine in bloom (my favorite).
The dark sky phenomena called "night" is really interesting. I mentioned previously how I responded to the first dark night I'd had in the last 5 weeks (excited to see the sun actually set and to see stars again). The next night I was walking around by the harbor here and an irrational fear crossed my mind; a fear of being unprepared for great coldness. It reminded me of the irrational feeling of seeing a total solar eclipse on a clear day like I did in La Paz, Mexico back in 1991. Such an eclipse is a cool phenomenon where the wind stops, the birds settle down for sleep, and the sky becomes dark at noon with sunset on all horizons for a few minutes. But there was also a weird little feeling that the door on the Universe was being closed. Something so majestic was occurring, and it made the pit of my stomach feel an irrational fear that it may not reopen. Back to the dark nighttime...the other effect I noticed is that in the 5 weeks of sunlight nights my instinct to feel sleepy had adjusted to trigger when I felt exhausted regardless of the hour. Now that nights are dark again, I'm noticing that my body is a little confused about whether it should feel sleepy when it's dark or not. I can't imagine what 3+ months of it would do to a person. Must be like going into space and returning to a world of gravity.
In considering travel plans, I set my return flight from Auckland to the latest date I could and still make it home for Christmas Eve. Then the flight from McMurdo would occur when we were done, basically, and the extra days were a buffer to accommodate weather delays. I selected Auckland rather than Christchurch and rather than requesting a layover in Hawaii or elsewhere, because they have an Ashtanga yoga studio here that looked good online. So while here I'm recovering from Antarctica by immersing myself in Sadhana/Bhavana - practice. Surprisingly I've been able to do my full practice the last two days, and even Kapotasana (a particularly challenging yoga pose) has been good. The studio here is good and spacious, and the teachers I've met are great. Here's a pic of the studio hallway.
It's Wednesday night now, so I'm caught up with my storytelling.
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