Hi Everyone!  Rich and I made it New Zealand on Christmas Day, then we headed to Antarctica on the 27th of December where we have been working at McMurdo Station.

Here are some pictures of my travels:

Click on any picture to make it super size

The New Zealand Customs officer was really nice and wished be a good stay in his country.

This is my friend Delphine .  She is a scientist from France who will be my host when we get to Dome-C station. Rich and I are now her host, showing her around the American Antarctic Center in Christchurch, New Zealand and also McMurdo station which will be our first stop in Antarctica.

Here I am with Delphine and Von.  We worked with Von at south Pole in 1999 and 2001, and he will be at Dome-C with us for a while working on a project to calibrate a NASA satellite called Aqua. We are waiting to board the LC-130 aircraft to Antarctica.

The loadmaster shows me around the aircraft, he says I can sit wherever I want because I am so small!

I spent most of the flight resting on the luggage,

And sometimes looking out the window at the sea ice.

I thought that nothing could beat flying a helicopter last season until now - Captain Tim let me fly the plane for a while! (Of course he helped me alot...)

It was really cool to sit on the dashboard too!

After the 8 hour flight we landed at Willy Field, on the Ross Ice Shelf near McMurdo.

Delphine and I are very happy to be here!

Over the next week we will be getting our equipment ready to fly on to Dome-C in a much smaller plane called a Twin Otter. We probably cant send pictures from there, but I'll write you often, and Rich can help answer your questions. Delphine taught me how to say goodby in French, so 'au revoir' until I send you an email soon!