Buckle up - its going to be a long day!
The start of the trip - 5:45am rendezvous in Corvallis, Oregon with the rental cars. Left to Right: Lila Ardor Bellucci, Myself, Andrew Thurber.
Today we arrived in Christchurch New Zealand after 30+ hours of travel, including 2 hours by car, four flights, and many, oh so many, airport layovers. Our epic journey started in Corvallis Oregon and ended in Christchurch New Zealand.
And we are not traveling light! Each of us had 2 or 3 checked bags containing our extreme weather clothing, drysuits and other SCUBA gear, underwater camera equipment, personal items, and a variety of other sciencey-things!
Portland airport pre-check-in.Top photo, from left to right: Andrew Thurber and Lila Ardor Bellucci. Bottom photo: Me with all our bags.
We were so lucky on our journey, and did not experience any flight delays, cancellations, or lost bags: a miracle considering how many legs this itinerary had! With so many layovers, we even had time for a sneaky pint at LAX
When we arrived in Christchurch, we were met by USAP (United State Antarctic Program) representatives who gave us our welcome packet of documents, They then shuttled us off to the USAP headquarters (next to/part of the airport) for out PCR covid tests.
Shuttle to USAP Covid Testing Center
Next, we took the shuttle to out hotel, where we completed our RAT test (rapid antigen covid test) as per the requirements of the New Zealand government. All clear, it was finally time to wash up and rest.
Tomorrow we have a few hours of USAP training modules to prepare us for getting to Antarctica, and after we will head to the USAP CDC (clothing distribution center) to get fitted up for our extreme weather gear, including our "big red" iconic jackets!
Check out this time lapse video I posted on Twitter of our Auckland to Christchurch flight: