Finally here!!

We have finally arrived to Antarctica, the long journey is over. It was not without drama that we arrived here today. After a 4 hour flight the fog was heavy over Pegasus airfield on our arrival. We tried a couple of times to land, but with almost zero visibility the pilots did not want to risk it. They gave us emergency landing instructions and prepared us for a possible hard landing. On our third attempt we made it, we had to land one way or the other since we did not have enough fuel to make it back to Christchurch. The temperature was around 6F on our arrival and it did not feel that cold.

On our arrival to McMurdo station we (Anne who is the Nurse administrator and Liz who is one of the MDs that I am going to be working with) were greeted by the current medical staff who are Faye (winter MD), Mel (Winter NP) and Mark (Lead MD for the summer). They shared with us that they were ready for a MCI (Mass Casualty Incident). They were told that if the pilots could not land the plane on the runway they were going to attempt to land the airplane on the belly in the snow. Good thing we did not have to experience that.
After a quick briefing we got our linen and room assignments. Since our plane could not return back to NZ tonight there are more people than expected so the room I was assigned already had people staying there so my room mate and I are staying in a temporary room.

I am looking forward to get to work tomorrow and learn how things are done down here. We are guessing on how many days it will be before I will do my first trip back to Christchurch with a patient. My guess is 6 days. I will keep you posted.

Our ride to Antarctica Royal New Zealand Air Force B757 at Christchurch airport

First view of the continent

Everybody ready for landing

Finally on the ground in Antarctica

On Pegasus Airfield

Our ride in to town

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