101 days

Here we are, the Twotter Boys, sitting in a hotel room in New Zealand with the window open, the lush green trees swaying outside in the warm wind wondering what the hell happened.  You thought it was all over, well it is now.  101 days since arriving in McMurdo we arrived back in real civilisation a little dazed and confused from a crazy last few days. 

 

Our Private LC130 and the Twotter Boyz sitting in the first class cabin (i.e. the cockpit)

After our arrival and celebration on Saturday, we spent Sunday afternoon unpacking the pallet of cargo and trying to locate the rest, which was tracked down the next morning.  Monday and Tuesday were spent cleaning, sorting and returning the masses of equipment and organising shipment of rocks back to the States.  It all happened so quickly. 

The Beard (suffering from a nasty case of Gingeritis)

An afternoon of thank you’s and goodbyes to all the people in McMurdo that have made this season possible then some wine in the bar (to help us sleep…) before being taken to the plane after midnight for a 3am night flight departure.  5 hours of sleeping fits and nodding heads later we arrived in Christchurch and it was all over. 

Feeling at home in the rain

Today we went up to Arthurs Pass for a walk in the warm rain.  As we come from Canadia (near Alaska) and Englandshire (near London) this made us feel at home.  Tomorrow Chris leaves for Hawaii and Tim stays for a few days before heading to Patagonia. 

So this is the last post before we have all gone our separate ways. A few numbers for your consideration…

7 people

98 Rock Samples

101 days

47kg cheese

1768 tea bags

14kg fresh coffee

1724km mileage on the skidoos

9 flights

19 landings

73 hours of satellite phone calls

3 beards removed (Chris, Mike & Tim I)

1 beard trimmed (Tim – Fawna, you’d be proud!)

1 “beard” removed (Danny)

1 very satisfied G097 team

A massive thank you to everyone involved - from NSF who made it possible, to the folk at McMurdo who made it happen.  We are very grateful to you all.  And now let’s get the rocks to the lab and start working it all out…