En Zed: Finally

After waiting for about an hour for the C-17 crew to unload a Bell 212 helicopter from the cargo bay, we boarded the cavernous beast and prepared to blast out of Antarctica. One of the hydraulic actuators that move a part of the cargo floor system failed, and I was ready to slap an M.E.L. sticker on that thing to get us outta there. Fortunately, one of the crewmen lasso'd the non-cooperative piece and hauled it in. We were airborne in minutes.

After an uneventful 5 hour flight, we touched down at Christchurch greeted by the smell of a forest fire. A campfire is one of the things I miss most, so having this as my welcome back was an unexpected pleasure. (I understand that the fire was not good for the guys working it, but you know what I mean.) The final schlep of our Extreme Cold Weather gear went well and we were off to our hotels.

After no more than 2 minutes in my room, I dropped my stuff and met a friend out front for a walk to the world famous Bailies Pub on the Church Square downtown. It was about 10:30pm when we got there, and we were greeted by a dozen or so familiar faces. Still more friends showed up as the night went on. I think we all left around 2:30am.

I was able to sleep with my window open the whole night. It feels a lot like California in the spring here. Remember, Christmas is a summer holiday below the equator; songs about sleigh rides and snowmen make no sense at this latitude. Christchurch is a beautiful, clean city. I still don't understand many of the local customs. Night clubs and bars were kickin' at 9:30am as I went for a walk around the city.

Tonight we head back to the Antarctic-friendly Bailies and wait for more friends to arrive just as we did last night.

I've already got my transport from here (the hotel) to the airport tomorrow arranged. Due to the fact there were no weather delays affecting my South Pole departure, I'll be back home 2 days earlier than I planned. Aukland to Los Angeles will take 12 hours...that's a lot of Opie and Anthony on the ol' MP3 player.