Kathy carrying all her gear onto the C-17 transport jet at the Christchurch airport. Will all that luggage fit under the seat in front of her?

I wasn't sure which was the appropriate place to stand............

Kate and Jennifer Gaydos, a science teacher going to Antarctica to build biological research into teaching at the high school level.

Sea ice breaking away from the Antarctic ice shelf seen from the window of the C-17 on approach to McMurdo Station.

The Transantarctic Mountains rising above the ice sheet (from the window of the C-17 cargo plane).

We arrived in Antarctica by C-17 cargo plane from Christchurch, New Zealand.

Everyone was happy to finally to be off the plane and to be in Antarctica.

Kate is really happy to finally be in Antarctica!!

View of McMurdo Station from Scott's Hut.

New Zealand's Scott Base:

At the outskirts of town.

Kate at the outskirts of town.

Scott's Hut built in 1902 and still looking great. When they built the hut there was open water just off shore.

Christmas in Antarctica--Santa made it to the South Pole by snow machine--the reindeer couldn't handle it. He did have beer on his breath, but who could blame him for taking a break before the big night.

Mountaineer, guide and Antarctic expert Peter Braddock (left rear), Eric (right rear); Kathy Licht (Santa's left), Kate Kramer (Santa's right).

Dr. Tim Paulsen, also from UW-Oshkosh, has been in Antarctica for the last three months and has been logging core from the deepest drill hole ever drilled in Antarctica. Tim is part of the Andrill project, which is a major research initiative that involves many scientists and support staff from around the world.

Tim and Eric with Black Island in the background.

A C-130 Hercules transport plane flying over McMurdo Station. The C-130 has been the way large amounts of cargo and people are moved around in Antarctica since 1960. They can be equipped with skis like this one and routinely land on ice, and are operated by the New York State Air National Guard.

Trucks and vans at McMurdo Station have tracks, like this one, or large snow tires on a four wheel drive.

Here is a row of four wheel drive, some with tracks, trucks and tracked vehicles called Piston Bullys at McMurdo Station.

Kate pulling food to fill one of our many food lists in the food room.

Kate and Eric organizing part of our food inside the food room.

Do we really want 80 of these??

Kate marking boxes in which we packed food and gear.

200 lbs. of chocolate with pepermint??

Kate and Eric strapping boxes before they are sent to Cargo where they will be flown out to our base camp site.

The word skua is the name of a seagull-like bird. But here at McMurdo, skua is not only a noun, it is also a verb used to describe reusing someone elses cast off stuff.

Used in a sentence: "That is a really nice hat. Did you skua it?"

Kate is really into skuaing. Here she found some really good stuff in the skua bin.

We have been working most days in Crary Lab here at McMurdo. It is a modern laboratory facility and is equipped with freezer doors--the "freezer" is outside.

Kathy showed Kate just who is the advisor and who is the graduate student--even at air hockey.

Kate and Tim on New Years Eve.

Kathy the next morning after the ANDRILL party.