Wellington Fort Wayne Chicago

Straight back to New Zealand from the Ice I went to Akaroa for the weekend.  It was gorgeous and green and relaxing...a good rest for the medical exams on Monday for redeployment to Antarctica.

Always a highlight for me is the Interislander Ferry from Picton to Welly.  This is the view of Picton from onboard the ferry.  Last year I took it at night, and it was still gorgeous with the town lit up.

We went to a delicious Thai restaurant for dinner as soon as I arrived.  Thanks guys!

Dora and I ran the ami Round the Bays Half Marathon, and Tiora (7 years old) ran with us for the first 10K! A half-marathon in January, one in February...off to a good start. :)

Hanna at 3.5 in swimming classes.  So cute!

Dora and I got to cook together lots, which I always love.  This was chicken cacciatore on the deck.  Such pretty views from that deck, and lovely old growth cyprus trees.

My sendoff party at the airport was really nice!  We had sushi by the beach beforehand.  Wellington has the biggest, most delicious sushi I've found.

It's winter in Indiana, for sure.  There was a snowfall upon my arrival. I haven't gotten to see a winter in the USA since February 2009.

The sunsets have been spectacular, usually orange but occasionally so red!

These are the beautiful trees across the way from the pond that I love to stare at.

This was the snowfall that Dave got to see too.  Quite a bit of snowfall and very pretty.  Lots of birds have been coming to the bird feeders.  Blue birds mostly, which are beautiful and tiny!

Our two night trip to Chicago was wonderful!  We saw lots of beautiful buildings, as well as the Art Institute and the Museum of Science and Industry.  Loved both!

We stayed on the 16th floor of the InterContinental Hotel on the Magnificent Mile right downtown.  A very beautiful and fancy place, and easy to walk to everywhere.  Even some fancy shops across the street, which was nice on the very rainy day that we left.

 Dave and I enjoying our walk around the city.

The Chicago Tribune building in the background...we were staying pretty close to that building actually.  It was so cold but so spectacular to see every building in every direction.

My favorite part was getting to see the inside of this actual, incredible German submarine U-505 that was captured in the war.  

The bunk room in the submarine.

Gauges and fittings in the submarine.

This was on Wacker drive, on our walk to dinner.

We got to meet up with an old friend Sal whom we first met in 2002, and have since seen in Idaho when he was a fire lookout and again in Antarctica most recently in the field.  We ate at an incredible place called Girl & the Goat which was a tapas-like restaurant.  Dave's favorite was the cow tongue, I liked the scallops and the roasted cauliflower, fried pickles with harissa for dessert.

This is one of Uncle Paul's cute new chickens.  We've gotten to see both Uncle Denis & Aunt Judy and Uncle Paul & Aunt Doris during this trip.  Dave got to watch a lot of college basketball, which is great because he never gets to.  And I got to try out some new and some old favorite recipes, as well as read a lot and see some new movies.  The three weeks flew by!  Dave's back in Alaska, I'm headed to Colorado soon to see some friends and then Dave and I are meeting up again in Mexico.  I'm really excited, I've never been to the Caribbean and it looks incredibly colorful and idyllic. We'll get to meet up with both sets of our parents there on the third week of our trip at an all-inclusive eco resort in Playa del Carmen.

More Pics

You can go to: http://ildidave.blogspot.com and click on the pictures to see them in a larger size.  

This is me in the cab of the Al-Jon metal baler.  It's so fun, I got to do it 4 times this season!  A whole dumpster full of metal, including drums and tanks gets crushed into the size of a suitcase.

Minkie whales in front of Scott Base.  A huge whale season since it was so hot and so much of the ice melted out.  The girls and I walked to Scott Base and saw fifty of them just swimming around out front.

Boat ops was fun, but long hours.  We pulled and removed spill containment boom around the Coast Guard ship when they took fuel, and the fuel tanker the Maersk Peary when they offloaded fuel to station.

The tanker ship from our little Spill Response boat.

My coworkers Paul, Kate and I got to take a fun trip out to "Room With a View" which is up towards Erebus with a great view of the mountains across the way. We all went in costumes and I really love these two.  Paul is actually wintering.

We rode two per machine on our trip and I was lucky to have Larry Fabulous as my guy.  He had never ridden on a snowmobile and was nervous, and I had and just wanted to ride with someone funny and kind.

Dream trips: I went out twice for further training on operating these tractors.  Last season I operated the Caterpillars more than the Cases, so on this trip I hauled a generator out a few miles.

The day before I flew out was a day off so I was able to pack super hurriedly so that I could go out for the afternoon and train more on the tractors.  That day I hauled a bunch of fuel tanks and fuel hose reels.  I kept joking that I should get the operator's pay since I was doing all his work and that in the least he owed me 5 hours of pay in chocolate.

This is my last day, on our way to the airplane in front of our ride to the airfield: Ivan the Terrabus.

This was an action shot from our Christmas Acoustic Show at the Waste Barn, where we enacted the whole Nutcracker in between live bands.  This was me as one of the rats during the Rat King and Prince fight scene with the soldiers.

This was the most violent storm I'd seen in 10 years, made worse by the moat between the pier and land being completely thawed out and waves being able to break like this.

Icestock 2014, our New Year's celebration.  I think this was the 25th.  It's Kevin (wearing pants that I made for him!!!! James, my boss, and Kate my coworker on stage.  Amazing band!)

Travis, my coworker, and I dressed up for the Acoustic Christmas Show bit where we ballet danced the Russian Dance.  We called ourselves Svetlana & Boris, and sent this picture out to field camps as our Christmas Card.

I ran my first race ever, and the first time running outdoors in Antarctica ever...the Antarctic Half Marathon, over the ice road which was grooved and slick, in 2 hours and 22 minutes!  And made it back in time for brunch, which was my only goal.

More storm and supply ship pictures.  It was a huge storm.  Dave I sent you this one.

Another storm and wave photo.  Dave will appreciate the size of that wave near the Tower of Power.

This is an audience photo from our Waste Barn Acoustic Christmas Show, and the only picture I have of my amazing roommate Sparky, up front in the purple/pink hat.  LOVE that girl!  This pic is for Dave who can recognise a lot of our friends in this shot. :)

My Dry Valleys trip in a helicopter to clean out old fuel barrels (thirty some) from a field camp.

Back on the Spill Response team.

 This is how you make a tutu our of trash, with a glue gun.

 My awesome help pilot Kareem.

On our way to Lake Bonney.

Blood falls from the helicopter.

Me hooking the nets of drums onto the bottom of the helicopter so it could be flown out.

A large ventifact near Lake Bonney.

Only 1% of Antarctica is not covered by snow and ice, and most of that is here in the Dry Valleys.

Ventifacts are rocks shaped by the wind.

 Glacier near Lake Hoare from the helicopter.

My coworkers Travis, Anne and Quinn at New Years.  We flash mobbed Ice Stock by ballet dancing through the crowd during one of the songs.  Getting some use out of those tutus.

An incredibly fun and fast season, which felt non-stop, not just at work but after hours.  Training four days a week for the marathon with one hour runs and keeping up with all the shows we put on and all the craft projects and mini-movies that we made.  It flew by this season for sure.  I'm in New Zealand right now visiting my beautiful family and headed back to the USA on March 1st to see Dave.  Love you very much, Ildiko.