Uncle Rickie on Ice

Howdy kiddos. Sorry it took so long for me to post again. I’ll try to post more often. I haven’t really taken very many pics of recent stuff, but I still have lots of pics from the previous times I was here that you probably haven’t seen. So I thought I’d post those, and I thought I’d start with pics from my first time I came here. So, off we go….

My first time we left the US at about 9 or 10pm a few hours before my birthday, and because NZ is a day ahead that means we landed the day after my birthday. So I think technically I can claim to be a year younger.

This was my first view of NZ in Auckland.

This was then my first view from the air as we were pulling into Christchurch. It’s really pretty, lots of green, and I can’t see any in this pic but they have lots of sheep I saw from the air too.

This is the view out the window from my first ever hotel in NZ, called The Sudima. it’s directly across the street from the airport.

Seriously, right across the street. This is from outside the hotel and in the center of the pic you can see the gray C-17 poking its tail up waiting for us.

Their money looks totally funny, doesn’t it? It doesn’t feel like our money either, it feels like plastic, and they don’t have 1 dollar bills, or 1 cent or 5 cent coins either. They do have $1 and $2 coins though.

This building is on the airport grounds. I think it’s probably used for aircraft equipment, but it’s a building I’ve never had to go into.

I got to walk around and check out some of Christchurch, it’s really pretty, and the people are all super nice.

They have K-Mart too!

They have PakNSave and we have or at least use to have PicknSave stores in the US, or at least in Phoenix. It’s sort of a grocery store.

We got some food and ate in the park, pretty day.

Waiting at the bus stop.

We weren’t sure if you had to pay for the bus, or if it was like free public transport. So we just got on the first bus and no one said anything. Then we got on the second one and the driver stopped as and said “you gotta pay sweetheart”. Haha

There is a place called the Antarctic Center, well they spell it Centre. You can buy Antarctica themed stuff and there is a little restaurant inside.

They’ve just got a guy hanging from the ceiling. They have a really cold room you can go in too, super exciting.

In front of the Antarctic center is a Hagglund. Believe it or not they’re designed to float if they break through the ice, and they have a hatch on top so you can escape.

The CDC or Clothing Distribution Center is where they issue us ECW or Extreme Cold Weather gear.

These are examples of the gear that they issue us, you don’t always get all that stuff.

Inside the changing room they have all your ECW in orange bags ready for you to try on and make sure it all fits. You can see in the poster which items you have to wear or have with you on the plane.

We’re usually in Christchurch for 2 days to get all our gear and get it test fitted, and sometimes have to do a couple trainings while we’re there. Then on the day we fly you go back to the CDC, get all your gear on, and then go outside and literally around the corner of the building to the USAP Passenger Terminal. You have to go in, get your bags weighed and checked in. They put everything through an X-ray machine like a regular airport. Then once we’re checked in they give us a boarding pass and we get a little while to wait until we’re ready for the flight.

Here I am killing some time until it’s time to go.

Then we hop on the bus for the 200 yard drive over to the aircraft, in this case a C-17 Globemaster.

They hand you a sack lunch, a bottle of water, and climb aboard.

As you can see my first time we flew down with a bunch of cargo and all sat in the wall seats.

Bet you can’t figure out which one I am. This was my first time down, so none of you had even been born yet.

We got to go up to the flightdeck while they were flying and check it out.

They wouldn’t even let me fly!

Best seat in the house though, great view.

Then we got all our gear on and ready for the descent.

Next time I’ll show you what happened after we landed. To be continued…

I love you all KHASBVG! Be good, and do something amazing!

“Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too.” -Mark Twain