Rickie's Antarctic Adventure: ECW Issue

Well I just took my last long shower for 5 months and it felt greatttt. From what I hear it turns out we're allowed (2) 8 minute showers a week. That sucks hardcore but maybe I can make it (4) 4's instead, fingers crossed. There isn't a natural source of fresh water so they have to desalinate 50,000 gallons of seawater every day so conservation is apparently a big deal.

We went and tried on all our ECW(Extreme Cold Weather) gear today and I'm all good to go and ready for tomorrow. Thats really all we had to do today and then had the rest of the day to ourselves. So I hoped on a bus with a few of the other folks and we went and checked out some of the city. It's nice here, it's really pretty, and all the local people I've talked to are really nice. On your return trip you can pick what day you'd like to return to the US. So it's possible to stay here for a little while for a little vacation on the way back, I might have to do that. I've got to check in at 7:30 tomorrow morning for the flight to the ice. We're wheels up at 9:30a here which is 1:30 in AZ. If the weather rolls in at McMurdo and we aren't able to land we get "boomeranged" and have to come right back to Christchurch and try again when the weather clears. It's about a 6 hour flight so as long as the weather at the landing strip is clear and we don't get turned around I should be there about 7:30 tomorrow evening AZ time. I found out today the record for boomerangs is 7, and I'd rather have unprotected sex with a bandsaw than break that record!

Anyway, onto the picture show!

This is what a $1.50 CANNN of Mountain Dew looks like oh and some chips...

USAP!

This is all the ECW gear they issue you. There is also the "bunny boots" but they're hiding behind dudes arm...

The "International Antarctica Center" is right next door. It's kind of like a museum and an amusement center. They have an "antartica experience" where they put you in a really cold room and blow a bunch of wind at you. It's $65 effin dollars, I think I'll wait and experience the real thing and get paid for it. Take that bitch...

This is part of the Antarctica Center, you can ride around in one of these babies only without the whole snow, cold, ice, penguin situation. Again I think I'll wait for the real thing...

They do not yield in New Zealand, they give way...

They also drive on the wrong side of the road, what the fuck...

K-mart at the mall. It looks like one of the anchor stores in the mall. Blue light special bitches!

PakNSave, the cousin to Pic N Save? I think yes...

We ate at Hell's Pizza, the phone number even has a 666 in it, hilarious...

You can apparently fist celebrities at Hell's Pizza too, I have dibs on Rachel McAdams...

Hells Pizza again, obviously the whole hell thing going on, they had mis-fortune cookies too...

$2.19 not bad for premium! Except that's a liter. 3.79 liters per gallon so that's $8.30NZ a gallon. On the bright side with the exchange rate that's a paltry $6.59US a gallon, fill er up baby...