Today he invited Al, Thomas and Toby to go out and have a look round as the season has opened and up to 3 flights a week leave for Antarctica from Christchurch.
A flight is due to leave in the morning, so the boys watched as a group of workers arrived and were given their pre packed kit bags of the clothing they will be wearing while on the ice. They have to go away and try it all on as it is not much use arriving down there to find that the size they requested is either too big or too small, as there is no way to swap it!
They pack the clothing up to 7 flights in advance with information they are supplied. Up to 110 people go per trip. That is a lot of clothing! Below are some of the kits all bagged up in row 7 for the 7th flight to depart.
Once they are kitted up, they leave and are due back at 6.30am the following day to await their flight. They proceed through a departure gate and go through a security check before boarding a bus and heading to their plane.
The Hercules takes approx 8 hours to travel to Antarctica, and a C17 jet takes approx 4 hours. Up to 3000 Americans travel to Antarctica in a season, NZ sends around 400.
Once they had had their tour, Guy let the boys try on the full kit to give them a taste of just how much clothing you have to wear in such extremely cold temperatures in order to stay warm - or more to the point - alive!
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