Christchurch was pretty badly damaged by the great earthquake 22 February 2011. Here is the Cathedral that still is being reconstructed.

The distance to various places from the Scott Base. Copenhagen is not there, but should be similar to Oslo. 

Peter Bromiski at his first exposure to the Antarctic--- In a museum!

Yesterday we spent the morning at the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) picking up my ECW (extreme cold weather) gear. We were issued  two bright orange duffle bags with all the gear. My first step was to take all of the gear out and double check that I had everything on the list that was given to me. We are responsible for returning all of the gear once we come back from the ice. Here are some of the items I have been issued:

• a large red parka (big red) and a light-weight red jacket
• bunny boots (large, insulated boots)
• socks, long underwear, fleece pants and jacket
• snow/wind pants
• goggles, face mask (balaclava), neck gaiter, and several pairs of gloves or mittens (leather, wool, work gloves, etc.).

This shows the clothing we can select at CDC:

 CDC is quite large, this shows part of their suply

 Here is the Ross Ice Shelf team (Ralph Stephen, Peter Gerstoft, Ron Flick, and Peter Bromirski)

departure

We are on our way from sunny California to Antarctica today.
We will first fly to New Zealand, where we will get ECW (extreme cold weather) clothing.