(5:30am) OK, time to go. We will write more later. So far this morning, in 5 minutes time, maybe less actually, we were told the flight out of Christchurch was delayed indefinitely, and then we got a call that we're going! Crazy. We'll send more when we are settled somewhere. Wishing you all the best!
~Gumby and Ms. Baker
(11:00am) No flight, so that gives us plenty of time to tell you about another day in Christchurch. Such is the life of Antarctic travel.
Yesterday was another laid back day in the city. We had an appointment at 1pm to get our clothing tried on a checked for tears, etc. We're issued to orange dufflebags with all sorts of Extreme Cold Weather gear.
OneZ
After we get everything out of the bags, try it on, check it, we then get to cram it all back in and hope it fits. One bag is checked like regular luggage on an airline, and then you can label a bag 'boomerang'. This is the only thing you get back if your flight is canceled or you actually take off and then turn around and come back. We got to use the boomerang bag this morning. I'm now here with change of clothes and stuff to shower with. If we are delayed another day, we will get all of our luggage back until it's time to fly again. In any case, at one point we were packed and ready to go.
Packed bags at CDC
The evening consited of a local pizza joint where we tried lamb for the first time. Lamb is very popular down here, though things like steak and hamburgers are easily found. Mmmmm, spicey lamb pizza!
After dinner we headed home to prepare for our 6:30am meeting time at the CDC. We got a call at 5am saying our flight was canceled indefinitely, and then another call not even 5 minutes later saying we were back on. So we show up to the CDC to get our bags, watch a briefing video, and wait. We sat around for about 3 hours before we finally got the "no-go" call.
The CReSIS team waiting at the CDC.
Again, the life of the Antarctic traveler. I'm just happy we didn't take off and then have to turn around and fly back to Christchurch. The plan is to try again at 5am tomorrow, Saturday. Wish us luck!