Whales and Travel

Some of the ice on the edge of the cliff. I thought it was pretty.


The only picture of the whales that the blog would let me upload.


All the people. Sign of fun stuff to see!


The way out to see the whales. The water was so smooth I just couldn't resist taking a picture.


One of the seals swimming under the water.


The little seal swimming around.


Out at Room with a View. And yes that is a football. They were playing frisbee and football!


A random stop along the way. With the white everywhere.


About as clear as it got. It was really pretty though.


Me in my Snowmobile cold weather gear.


This is one of the islands out in the ice and open water.


The first look at the snowmobiles all lined up in the snow.


The five penguins in a row along the big crack in the ice.


The One brave one that was always looking and being followed.


Those little black dots are the penguins and that is the big crack in the ice. Poor penguins.


So I have pictures of the penguins that I got on our penguin break. So check those out. They were really entertaining and funny.
I also was able to see whales a few days ago. I was going for a walk and saw a ton of people out on Hut Point. Anytime you see people out there it means there is something interesting; penguins, whales, seals, or the ship. So I walked on out and there was a group of Minky whales out there just swimming around. I got a ton of pictures of them. There were also some seals swimming around so I was able to get some good pictures of them as well.
I think Hut Point is one of my favorite places around here. It is a great view and really easy to walk to. It is only about a 10 minute walk away from McMurdo and I could sit out there for hours just watching the water or ice.
As well as the whales the big supply ship came in on Monday. I haven't seen it yet because I haven't really been on Ob Hill or near the edge of town all week. But hopefully the next few days I will go out and get some pictures of this ship. It basically brings a lot of supplies that they need for over winter and the heavier things that cannot be flown in. When it leaves it will take all the waste and things to be shipped back to the states.

But the big highlight of the last week was my Bondoggle. A Bondoggle (which I am sure I am not spelling correctly) is where your bosses give you time off work to do something around Antarctica. Some of the popular ones are snow school (learning to survive on the ice), south pole turn around (flying out the to pole getting about 20 minutes and flying back), and Room with a View, which is the one I got. Basically it is a 50 minute snow mobile ride out to the base of Mt. Erabus, the big volcano that is part of our island. On clear days there is an incredible view of the volcano, of the open water, and all the little islands around this one. The day I went, Saturday, wasn't really that clear. Around the last 20 mintutes out there the sky started to clear over the water so I got some good shots of the islands. But Mt. Erabus was covered almost completely. However, I got to drive a snow mobile, which was totally awesome. We also took down the tent that is out there becuase we were the last trip of the season. The whole trip was really quite cool and I get off work tomorrow because of it. Yay! Basically they gave me a bondoggle on my holiday (which I got off anyway) so are giving me extra time off work to do whatever I want. Which is fun.

Besides Antarctica, I have finalized my plans for after I leave the Ice. I am going to travel around the South Island until about mid March. I found three places to work in some really cool locations. I will also be taking a day trip out to Milford Sound, which apparently is beautiful. I might do some type of adventure thing in Queenstown which has the oldest bungy jumping jump, as well as zip lines, skydiving, and all manner of crazy things to do. So I can't wait to go around, but I will be back around March 20th. So See you all in 2 months!