Tassie turns on the glam!

 Well, even though it was very very cold in Hobart on our day of arrival (12th April), it was still stunningly beautiful as we chugged down the derwent. 

Crazy?? Perhaps!

 Who really knows what is going on in this photo - perhaps we are excited to be nearly knows, or perhaps Antarctica really does send people mad. Possibly both. But cath and I are having some fun just mucking around on the way home! 

Are we there yet?

 Do Cath and I really know?? No, probably not, but is fun to pretend! 

Last view of Macca

 Our last view of land till Tassie. 

Goodbye Macca - Bound for home

 Standing on the helideck ready to say goodbye with flares, we prepare to leave. Bound for Hobart - in around 4 days time. 

King Penguin

 These guys are pretty big. At a guess i would say they stand at around 500mm tall. Fairly impressive really. 

Elephant Seals

 Yep, these guys are HUGE! And boy oh boy do they stink, but once you get over that you see that they are kind of endearing as well, with their big brown eyes, they are kind of cute, in a huge smelly oafish kind of way!! 

King Penguin

 These little guys were so fascinating, friendly and curious. If you sat for long enough nearby to them, they would come up to you really closely, and check you out. I had to work for a little bit during the refueling but on my break i was lucky enough to be able to have a wander about to check out the local residents! 

King Penguins

 What a bonus. Not only do we get to finally see some lush green landscape, but we also get to see up close some amazingly friendly and curious King penguins. 

On top of the world (well macca anyhow)

 I had the opportunity to wander up to the radio towers up on a high point of macca. From here was a fantastic vantage point of the whole station part of the island. What a view. 

Macca Panorama

 Please don't mind the fact that this is a very dodgy stitching attempt. Extract from it simply the scale of this place, and how picturesque it is - not to mention colourful (quite a shock to the system!!!). 

First sight of Macquarie Island (Macca)

 Finally after about 5 days aboard the orange taxi, Macca approaches, all misty and kind of creepy but somehow delightfully spectacular as well. It was also great to see some kind of life again in all the birds and penguins around the ship. 

Aurora Australis, our floating helipad

 And there she is, appearing on the horizon first like a black spec, she loomed up very quickly. Here was our great orange taxi to take us back to civilisation! 

Iceberg glowing in the seas

 This view of an iceberg in the sea blew us away, it just glowed so brightly it was really astonishing. AMAZING 

Our last view of land

 Goodbye Casey station and the continental landmass of Antarctica! 

Chopper flights depart Casey for Aurora Australis

 Well, finally it came time to depart Casey station. I was sad to leave, but I had known all along that all good things must come to an end. The way we left was a bit slow and painful, because the ship was 40nM offshore, and the helitrip was around 45mins return, so people were leaving in dribs and drabs. But eventually it was my turn to say goodbye to friends that i was leaving behind, and time to head on to the next stage of the adventure. 

One last chance to take in the continents Beauty

 Well it was a spectacular sunset on a balmy night, so it was time to go and have some quiet time before leaving the station. We were set to leave Casey on the 27th March. Unbelievable how time flies down here. So the last couple of weeks required a great deal of taking it all in and making sure the memories are lasting. 

Tradies 2005-06

 What a fantastic bunch they were too. This photo was taken by Brad and shows most of the tradie group from the summer season. A great summer i think, with lots of work done and lots of great time shared. 

50's night - a time to say goodbye to friends

 
The jukebox that Petey and I made was for a good purpose. It was to be used as a prop for our final party of the season that was a 50's theme. It was a night to be remembered, and a great time was had by all, even if it was a bit emotional for some of us to be leaving!! 

Wurlitzer - Finished product!

 
Finally we finished the hard yards on the Wurlitzer jukebox. I think that Petey and I did a great job and it came up looking a treat. Note that Grease is playing on the screen! Yay! 

Radio Sched

 Here i am getting radio reception at Wilkes for the 7 pm mandatory sked which allows the radio operator back at Casey to know of our location, intentions and current weather conditions. In return, we can get the latest weather forecast for the area. 

Wurlitzer production

 Our end of season do is coming up next week. Myself and Pete the chippy are making a jukebox for the evening which is a 50's theme. It is a fun
project, and is absorbing a lot of our out of hours time! 

Dad, i dug another hole... its filling with water!

 Anyone who has seen The Castle will get this! 

An example of what not to do!

 So this is a hazard of grooming - Antarctic style! In this photo you can see what happens when you hit a bit of a melt stream when driving the challenger with the grooming drag bars. It took some digging, but in the end, it came out and there was no crisis. Just another antarctic opportunity really! Tricky's score for bogging vehicles is getting higher by the day, but we won't hold that against him! 

Grooming - Antarctic Style

 Hmm, imagine the slopes of Perisher Blue if this was how we did all our grooming. These drag bars are how our routes out to huts and the runway are kept reasonably flat.