brief exchanges

My flights may have been "direct" from Bellingham to Christchurch, but I certainly had some layover time. In all the trip took 30 hours. The longest layover was in Los Angeles where I had six hours to make my connecting flight. Instead of passing the endless hours at the airport, my dear friend, Amanda, came to LAX to pick me up.

We had a great walk on the beach with palm trees and everything. We also went out for a sushi dinner (not something you can find in Antarctica)!

After all that fun, and running around LAX trying to get my third "excess" bag sorted out between Alaska and Qantas airlines, I had a 13 hour flight to look forward to toward Auckland, New Zealand. I can't say much about that flight anymore. It is the fifth time I have made a trans-Pacific flight and while I wanted to sleep, I was wide eyed and ended up watching a movie, or two instead.

By the time I reached Christchurch, it was 10:30am, two days later and I whizzed through gear issue at the Antarctic Clothing Distribution Center and picked up my travel funds and such as well.

Laura came and met up with me there and we toured around Christchurch for the rest of the day together. It was wonderful to spend some time with my sister; even if it was only one short day. The weather was sunny, and warm, and perfect!

We stopped at the Coffee House; my favorite spot in the world for lunch and a spot of coffee, too. We walked to the grocery store, constantly bumping into people who were leaving Antarctica and beginning their travels home, or around the world. We went grocery shopping. I picked up a few pieces of produce, a heap of chocolate, some soaps and such. I tried to keep the shopping to a minimum, though, since I had already exceeded my weight limits for baggage to Antarctica.

For the evening, Laura and I met a group of mostly women from Antarctica for drinks at one of the Antarctic favorites, Dux de Lux. I had a great conversation with Kaska, my coworker from last summer. We had a years' worth of stories to catch up on and I am so glad I was able to see her in passing as well! She is off on another around-the-world trip until she returns to Antarctica in October.

Finally, totally exhausted, and fading fast, Laura and I went out with a few other Ice people for Indian food. My chicken korma was the last "fresh" meal for awhile and it was well-worth it to stop in there! Completely wiped out, I crashed into bed that night for a short rest.