argallnaut

I stayed one night on the beaches of Kaiteriteri, but had to get there on windy, precarious gravel roads. Well worth it, though. The next day I went to Marahau to begin our trip through the Abel Tasman park. Instead of walking, I booked a kayaking trip that started with a aquataxi to a beach called Onetenoui, then kayaked through the marine reserve to an island with fur seals and their pups on it, and finally to Anchorage Bay for an overnight stay on a beach with beautiful turquoise waters. Along the way, the tour group stopped for lunch at another beautiful bay and saw a really large sting ray, about 3 feet across. The next day I walked from Anchorage back to Manahau along the coast and through the forest -- quite a piece of ... read more

I am traveling north, now, to the Abel Tasman national park to do the great walk there. I went to the Buller Gorge , walked across the swing bridge, and did the walks there. Afterwards, I drove most of the day, stopping at a mountain lookout for lunch, then at Motueka to use the internet.... read more

So far I have hiked through a Stream Flow Cave, a walk that lasted about an hour and went though a cave that became pitch dark with a rapid flowing stream through it. At parts it was all the way up to my stomach. I made it out to the west coast and visited Greymouth, Pancake Rocks and went on some short walks. One was to another cave that was not very interesting, but we met weird guy along the way that made the trip very amusing. Another walk today was the Charming Creek walk; on it was a suspended bridge, an old goldmining railway system, some tunnels through the mountain, and a large waterfall.... read more

My last couple days in Antarctica were pretty busy. A person who services the Automated Geophysical Observatories (AGOs), stations around Antarctica that are very similar to the one that I am building, brought a broken 20 year old magnetometer for me to install. I had to do a lot of repairs to get it working properly enough. The batteries finished, so I loaded them on a pallet, brought them out to Willy Field, and installed them again. Afterwards, the power was flowing and all the instruments were up and running. A little tidying up was in order and a little more fidgeting, then I put the door on and sealed it up tight. In the meantime, there was bluegrass night at the Coffee/Wine House that I went to. I also went on a couple hikes. A ... read more

I woke up early for to watch Obama's inauguration this morning. It was aired live in the galley at 6 a.m. Then phased between sleeping and reading while I waited to go to my outbriefing at 10:30. Once there, I was asked how the NSF and Raytheon support was, how our visit matched our outline in the SIP (not sure what it stands for, but it is basically a detailed outline of everything we would do and need here). After that, I went back out to Willy Field with more troubleshooting things for the allsky camera and worked on that for a while. It turns out a wire had come loose during the shipping process, so I plugged back in and returned to McMurdo after taking a few more test pictures. I got to talking with ... read more

More food for the intellectuals... read more

Because nobody works here on Sunday and we are waiting to hear if battery reconditioning works before anything else can be done, I have the day off! The recreation team and a bunch of volunteers organized a marathon for today and I thought about skiing the full or running the half. The course is on the ice shelf and goes between Willy Field, Pegasus (where the C-17 jet-engine cargo planes land) and Scott Base. But morning and running don't mix well with me, so, a little disappointed, I sat this one out. However, I found my way to the library and encountered a Runner's World magazine and read that. Eventually, I did go for a run of my own, but far shorter than 26.2 miles. Gallagher's bar had burger night tonight, so I stopped in for ... read more