penguins/ship/rugby

While I was working outside this week, because I’m tough, I noticed a lot of people coming and going over to Hut Point.  So today after lunch I wandered over there to see what the fuss was all about.  It is not too far, but I picked up a bike to use just so I could say that I rode a bike in Antarctica.  I rode a bike in Antarctica.  Going over there was easy because it was all down hill.  You know what that means.  Coming back really sucked.

As I got close, I saw a group of people loosely gathering around something I couldn’t quite make out.  I got off the bike that I rode in Antarctica and walked closer to see some penguins!!!  There were 3 of them, right there on the road.  Someone said that they were Adelie penguins, so that’s what I’m going to say they were.  It is illegal to disturb any animals here so the people gathering around were trying not to disturb them or alter their behavior.  I stood there while all three and the group of people walked by.  It was crazy.  I stood there a while and one of them started coming back towards me.  He walked about 2 feet from me.  He was heading back to where he came from.  The road is all crumbled volcanic rock and they were doing pretty well on it, but if there was any snow near where they were walking, they would go for the snow.  I wonder if them walking on rock (vs. snow/ice) is like humans walking on the sand when the sun just has it baking hot.  Here is a picture of the little guy while he’s still on the rocks.  It’s a bad picture but I wasn’t zoomed in at all, it should give you an idea of how close he was.

Here is a better one of him in his element.  He had walked past and was on his way back down to the ice where he came from.  I watched him a while and he went all the way down to where the ice has broken up a little and there is a pretty big, open pool.  My camera was messing up and so I couldn’t take any more pictures by the time he got down there, but here he is on his way, it was cool to see him slide on his stomach, which you can see the trail of:

While at Hut Point I could see out to where more ice was breaking up and I would occasionally see the penguins swimming and hopping out of the water.  It was pretty cool, but I could never have gotten it on my camera, it was too far off.  But I could also see the ice breaker that is coming in.  It is named the Oden.  It supposed to get here on Tuesday and I have volunteered for a line handler position for when the ship comes in.  It will be docking at a “dock” made of ice and dirt.  It is really pretty odd, but hopefully I’ll see up close and personal when I’m helping with the ropes and will be able to report more about it.  In the meantime, here is a picture of the Oden on the horizon (it looked a lot closer to me…it really drives me crazy that these pictures look so different than real life):

So that was what everyone has been looking at.  Today I also went to the annual rugby match.  Every year McMurdo (American) plays Scott Base (New Zealand) in a rugby match.  If you are not aware, rugby is HUGE in New Zealand.  America has never won this annual game.  They have not even scored any points in recent history.  Today did not change any of that.  Although I didn’t, and still don’t, understand everything about the game, it was still a lot of fun to watch.  I think I’d really like it if I knew what was going on because even not knowing I liked it a lot.  It was played out on the Ross Ice Shelf and the weather was great.  I am pretty sure I got a little bit sun burned.  But here is a picture of the “pitch” before the game started.  That’s the planet’s southern-most active volcano in the background: