Orientation and Travel to Christchurch

Orientation was what you might expect: lots of folks giving often-repetitive information. The travel briefing was excellent! To the point with the exact stuff we need to travel. The other talks were on safety, safety, safety, and ecological protection and human resource behavior for supervisors.

A very useful aspect of the orientation was that I got to meet many of the folks I’ll be working with on the Ice. Nice folks.

Finally, the orientation ended and we boarded busses to the Denver Airport. Standing in a very very long line, American Airlines did a nice job with our group check-in. That was important, since our bags were being checked together (and bonded) so that they could go straight through to Christchurch. That saved us a lot of hassle schlepping our bags from place to place at various airports.

Flights were all on time, although the waits at Denver and LAX seemed interminable. After 14+ hours on the Quantas flight to Sydney, we had less than 1 hours on the ground before boarding another flight for Christchurch. However, since we didn’t have to go through customs or immigration there, it seems like we all made it.

Now we’re in Christchurch. Weather sucks. Winter, overcast and drizzly. I did pick up the shirts I had made with the McMurdo medical logo.

This evening, I went to dinner at Dr. Rob Sweeney’s home, our New Zealand doc for when we have to MedEvac folks off the Ice.

Tomorrow, I go to CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) to get my flu shot and my ECW (extreme cold weather) gear.


Arrival in Christchurch was simple enough, until after passing through the immigration, customs and biosecurity (for unwanted plants and animals) screenings, I was suddenly pulled out of line “at random.” Fortunately, the fellow erred in thinking I was with another group. When he discovered I wasn’t, he let me proceed to the waiting shuttle.

Then to the Crowne Plaza.

Nice big place right in the middle of town. And, what a quaint town it is. It’s been described as the most English town outside England. I’d agree.

Even the Avon River winds through town and, like some English university towns, they often punt (use a pole-powered open boat) on the river. However, it’s really cold here; I didn’t expect that.

The first evening, I was kindly invited to Dr. Rob Sweeney’s home for dinner. He’s the liaison physician and works closely with Leeann Stringer. Great homemade pasta dinner and, for “dessert,” a tour of the Christchurch Hospital ED. Looks like any modern Western ED, so should do nicely.

The next morning, I walked around the central city, stopping in a couple of places for bites to eat. That’s not a doughnut, but rather a bagel with lox (smoked salmon) and a coffee mocha. Nice presentation in a very small coffee shop.






At noon, we went to the Antarctic Center’s CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) to get our ECW (extreme cold weather) gear. It was complicated enough to need a video to further confuse us. However, Todd, a heavy equipment supervisor and long-time Polie was kind enough to personally guide me through the process. Lots of switching gear until I got the right stuff—blue boots, larger pants, a pair of heavy mittens and, at Georg Bakker’s suggestion, also a lightweight jacket.

I then had to retake the computer security on-line training. Apparently, doing it once about 5 months ago wasn’t sufficient. Then, I met with the incoming station manager, Don Brogan. Great guy! We’ll be working closely together. We then met with the overall New Zealand manager who will be coming down to the Ice in a few weeks. He invited me to dinner along with Gary, our USAP air boss. We first ate at Valentinos and then went for a decadent dessert around the corner at Strawberry Fair.Both were excellent, as I knew they would be; Gary has been “doing” Christchurch and New Zealand for 18 years.

Then, back to bed for an early morning call (2 am wakeup) for our flight. I packed up, went to the lobby with all my gear, checked out and, just as Don drove up in his car, we received notice that the flight was postponed for 24 hours due to weather on the Ice.

Back to the room and, at 8am, breakfast with Don and Gary. After going to the Antarctic Center to pick up our per diem and do some work, we set out for some sightseeing southeast of Christchurch. Fantastic scenary surrounded us as we traveled first to Governor’s Bay. There, we stopped at “SheChocolat” where I had a mocha coffee—with a chocolate spoon made from their homemade chocolate. We then proceeded to Arakoa, an old French whaling village where we had lunch, walked around the quaint and quiet tourist town.

The next day was similar. Our flight was cancelled again, so after work at the Antarctic Center, including a conference call, we set out for New Zealand’s west coast. Quite a ride over some very windy roads. Beautiful! And, after stopping for a snack at Arthur’s Pass where we spotted Kea, a mountain parrot, we continued on to Greymouth. Great pizza was followed by a coastal trip near sunset. For anyone who has visited Bryce Canyon in Utah with its amazing rock formations, this is even better. It has both the rocks and the sea. We didn’t get back until

about 10:30 pm. But, I was sure that we would be delayed again. Wrong!

Arising reluctantly at 2am, I struggled to get my bags ready, get dressed and get downstairs. Yes, we were going. So we went to Denny’s for breakfast and proceeded to the CDC to change into our gear, repack our bags and get processed to take the flight. My bags were somewhat over the limit, but the tolerant Kiwis running the show were lenient when I explained that I was carrying some medical gear. (I was.)

We all checked through to the waiting area, viewed an instructional video, and finally boarded busses for the short trip to the C-17. Don Brogan was interviewed (above)by New Zealand TV. “Catering” on the flight consisted of being handed a bag lunch as we boarded the plane’s stairs.

With about 142 “souls” on board, we occupied both seats along the side of the plane and some airliner seats in the center. Of course, we were packed into the giant plane along with a considerable load of cargo—including our bags.

Surprisingly, the plane was really not very cold, so we removed most of our ECW for the 5-hour flight. Sleep was the main activity. We needed it, especially since the general feeling was that we would probably get “boomeranged,” turned around to return to Christchurch due to bad weather. Wrong again!

Five hours later our C-17 landed smoothly at McMurdo’s snow-covered (actually packed snow) Pegasus runway. We donned all our cold weather gear, collected our carry-on bag, and walked out onto the Antarctic continent.
The famous “Ivan the Terrabus” was there to carry many of us (me included) to McMurdo Station. The trip only took about 25 minutes. I later found that the journey had been abbreviated because we were able to take a shortcut road across the sea ice—a road cleared on frozen ice over the ocean. The Terrabus got us to within 50 yards of our destination, Building 155, before it died. It is now in for repairs and we went in for orientation to McMurdo and room assignments.

Getting Ready to Go (Way) South

Tuesday, August 4, 2009. Having arrived in Denver for my pre-deployment orientation and meetings, I boarded the shuttle from the Staybridge Inn to Raytheon Polar. We arrived at 7:15 am and, surprise! We couldn’t get in, since the security person that had to “badge” us doesn’t arrive until 7:30. However, this gave me time to talk with Daisy Hoffert, our PA for the summer season. She’s now working at a prison and previously worked in EDs and ICUs.

Today was a chance to not only to get a series of very interesting flight medicine/MedEvac talks by Maj. Greg Richert, our chief flight physician, but also to obtain more information about the Pole than I had been able to previously get. He has been there for 3 years in a row. So has Tara Stoddard, who is our civilian flight nurse. (Daisy, right above, our PA is with Tara demonstrating the earplugs we were given.) Great folks!


We also had some small meetings with Greg, Doug Freer (below, left, a just-about-retired Navy Captain) who is the Raytheon’s polar Medical Director, and Leeanne Stringer (below), our New Zealand nurse contact for evacuations to and treatments in Christchurch. We had lots of discussions about preventing and dealing with flu, especially H1N1, for which we don’t have a vaccine as of yet. These would continue the entire time I was in Denver, with continual flu plan revisions as more information became available through the CDC.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 This morning our group toured the insides of a C-17 and had the crew clarify some patient-transport procedures. They proved to be much easier to understand once we saw the plane and equipment. I’ll rarely have to be involved in loading these patients; it will be a very unusual situation for me to fly with them. I am the last bastion of medical care at McMurdo, so this won’t really be part of my duties. However, preparing the patients for transport will be.

I had dinner with Gerry Katz, a very smart internist/hospitalist who has served as medical director for and consultant to the program for about 20 years. He provided lots of insights on the program and my duties on the Ice.

Thursday, August 6 through Friday, August 14, 2009: Lots of reviewing protocols and employee-applicant medical charts. I’m now part of the “PQ” process. That means physically qualified for deployment to Antarctica. The requirements are rather strict, but lots of people apply for medical waivers. Some of them have significant medical problems. The question then is, do we give them a medical waiver? Three of us review the charts, generally independently. The medical director then makes a recommendation and passes it on to the NSF medical director.

We had weekly conference calls with Palmer Station (opposite Punta Arenas, Chile and Ushuaia, Argentina), the South Pole station, and McMurdo. Kind of unbelievable that we’re talking with folks in Antarctica!
Over the weekend, Mary Lou and I had a great mini-vacation to Golden, Colorado. I’m not a train nut, but their railroad museum provides a restful stroll among lots of vintage rolling stock—and a short trip aboard a steam-locomotive-driven train. While there, I got scalped (a #2 clipper at my instruction) in an old-fashioned barber shop on the main street. My barber was 80-years old and still a sharp guy who sold tickets to football games on the side. (No, he wasn’t a bookie.)

We then had dinner with two physicians who were my residents in the first and second classes at the University of Arizona: Rick Dart and Katie Hurlbut. They’re married with 3 girls, a great home, and top-notch academic jobs. Rick has long been the director of the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center. Katie continues on faculty at Denver General Emergency Medicine residency program.

On Sunday we visited the Denver Zoo and their Natural History Museum. (Do you know why there won't be any more bear photos until after I leave Antarctica? Of course, there are no bears of any kind there!) Compared with what we have seen in DC, Chicago and elsewhere, they leave a lot to be desired.

The second week was much like the first, except that I had meetings with a number of folks who will direct areas I have to deal with on the Ice. A highlight was that Mary Lou and I had dinner with Gerry Katz and his fiancé, Deidre. Excellent food and hospitality!

This weekend, orientation--and travel to Christchurch on the way to the Ice!

Antarctica--Preparing to Go

After completing tons of paperwork—often supplying the same information multiple times—and finishing the grueling PQ (physical qualifications testing) including a cardiac treadmill test, I finally began getting information about orientation and travel.

I’ll leave for Denver on August 3 to get training on aeromedical evacuation using the Air Force planes that we use to transport folks and material to and from “the Ice.”

I’ll then remain to be oriented on the multitude of administrative details that accompany the job of McMurdo’s Lead Physician. We’ll also, presumably, go over the plans for preventing (a dubious effort) and dealing with flu epidemics at the various Polar stations.

So, what has been the most onerous part of this ordeal? The packing. Although the details keep changing, it appears that we have a limit of 75 pounds of stuff we can take with us for the 6+ months. And, that is reduced by about 22 pounds for the ECW (extreme cold weather) gear we are issued in New Zealand. I’ll be taking stuff for Denver (Mary Lou will be up there part of the time and take most of that back to Tucson), stuff to have as cargo on the plane with me to the Ice (if it doesn’t get bumped), stuff to carry on (computer, ECW gear, camera, “bounce-back bag” in case our plane has to abort due to weather or mechanical issues), and stuff to mail to myself from Christchurch (CHCH, or “Cheech”). Some of my gear, such as my roll-aboard, I’ll leave in New Zealand for when I return.

Well, the adventure begins—tomorrow!