A Surprise Homecoming

December 22nd 2017 was quite literally one of the longest days of my life--let me explain. Due to our good luck with weather, we flew our final flight on 17 December (which was dictated by the number of flight hours budgeted by this project). Our final flight did not disappoint as we flew over a series of glaciers in the Transantarctic mountains. This was also the most harrowing of flights as we were getting slammed by some turbulence trying to go up one of said glaciers. Now that I'm back in the land of internet, I can include some videos. Below is a video from the flight:

I had know for a week prior to our final flight that I was likely going to make it home much earlier than originally planned; however, the details of a return trip were up in the air and seemed to change every day. For a bit, I thought I was going to be able to fly home on the Basler rather than taking an NSF LC-130 back to Christchurch. I was actually looking forward to this option as it would have meant flying across the continent and up through South America (one of two continents I have yet to visit). However, this plan required two of our people getting a ride on an LC as the Basler didn't have enough room for all of us.

We thought we had secured those requisite spots; however, the morning of our last flight we were told we didn't have those spots. Sometime between us getting on the plane and us landing 5.5 hours later we went from none of us on the plane to all five of us. I was both happy and a little disappointed. Disappointed because it meant no flight across the continent and no South America, but happy because I was going home. There's an old Antarctic say that goes, "If there is a plane going north, get on it." It's a more contemporary saying. As I write this, the Basler is still in Antarctica, but making progress getting home.

On 21 December, I loaded onto an LC-130 for my 8 hour ride back to New Zealand. On December 22nd, I woke up at 7am, and boarded a plane for Auckland. After 39 hours of travelling, I finally arrived on my doorstep at 8pm on DECEMBER 22ND! I had decided to keep my early return a secret from Cooper. When he greeted me at the door he just just stared at me and told I wasn't supposed to be home yet. The reason for his reaction? He was in the middle of remodelling our kitchen, and had planned to surprise me with it. The lesson here is never try to surprise a professional surpriser because you will always get out surprised.

It's good to be home for the holidays, and I plan to relax until after the New Year. Here's a video of me, and what I've been up to since I returned (the breathing you can hear is "me"):