The trip to the South Pole for our UD research team begins with a flight from Philadelphia International Airport to Los Angeles, where they board a Qantas Airlines Longreach 747, a huge aircraft that seats 300 people, for the flight to New Zealand.
After crossing the International Date Line, they arrive in Auckland, New Zealand. Then it’s back on a plane for a 12-hour domestic flight to Christchurch (called “Cheech” for short) on the east coast of South Island.
Christchurch, New Zealand, is the gateway to Antarctica. Known as the “Garden City,” it is the largest city in South island and the second largest city in New Zealand, with a population approaching 350,000.
Near the airport is an office of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a clothing distribution center where long underwear, fleece underjackets, wind pants, parkas, boots, gloves and hats are issued. Each season, more than 140,000 pieces of extreme cold-weather gear are available for issue to the nearly 2,000 U.S. Antarctic Program participants.
From Christchurch, the rest of the trip is by military aircraft. First, there is a five-hour flight by C-17 to McMurdo Station, with a landing on Williams (Willy) Field on the McMurdo Ice Shelf, or if its surface is melting, on Pegasus, the blue ice runway on the permanent ice shelf.
After being picked up by “Ivan the Terra-Bus,” the researchers typically spend a day or two in McMurdo (often referred to as “MacTown”) waiting for a flight to South Pole Station. The three-hour flight is aboard one of the LC-130 Hercules cargo planes that the New York Air National Guard flies under contract to NSF.
McMurdo is the base and jumping-off point for the NSF Antarctic Program (except for Palmer Station). It has a population of over 1,000 during the “high season,” while South Pole Station has around 250 people.
