Day 4 - Cold Weather Gear Issued 4 December

Day 4 began at 0600 local as I had adjusted to the new time zone adequately.  Harvey elected to get in an AM workout by running in the local area while I enjoyed many cups of java on the patio.  We met for a leisurely breakfast and then I worked on building the trip's blog site initialization, upload of text/photos and announced the site to family, friends and colleagues.  The hotel's food appears to be some of the best in the local area and easily tops the airport's food court which generally caim highly recommended.

Shortly after lunch, Harvey and I walked to the USAP clothing distribution center (CDC) for our predeployment extreme cold weather (ECW) gear issue, try on for sizing and repacking of the carry-on bag as well as the larger check-in ECW bag.  At the CDC we met up with our teammate and colleague from NASA's JPSS ground system's division and we teamed up for the afternoon when finished at the CDC.  USAP and RPSC staff made ECW process very smooth and painless adventure for the ~40 folks heading to McMurdo on tomorrow's 0500 flight on the USAF C17 plane.  We were instructed to pack a "boomarang" bag; a separate carry-on bag with our "overnight needs," e.g. clothing and toiletries in case the plane has to return to Christchurch for equipment or weather reasons.  When we were done with the clothing issue, briefings and RPSC computer scans we took in some site seeing at the International Antarctic Centre.  The center provided considerable background on the international studies/research on climate, atmospheric and terrestrial science conducted on the continent.  The Centre featured a raft of blue penguins and we got to see the afternoon feeding.  We enjoyed a few short films on the flora/fauna, glaciers and science outposts on the Antarctic continent.  Lastly enjoyed a ride on the Centre's Hagglund snow/ice tracked vehicle; examples of what is used outside of the Scott/McMurdo Stations.

Our group of three joined for dinner at the Copthorne Commodore's restaurant for dinner and beverages.  We discussed what lies ahead for our on-ice experience, engineering tasks and the 0200 hotel checkout and departure to the USAP hanger.  We wrapped up early and saw our NASA colleague off to her hotel as she stayed near the downtown area hotel.