Merry Christmas and a Happy New Beer

Gotta take advantage of the good weather when we get it ;)

What a ridiculous few days that was. So very, very busy and tiring. On Saturday we started with the usual celebrations upon the MIPEP crew's return with a BBQ, badminton and table tennis - plus putting up the Christmas decorations.

Christmas day started with a sore head and dry throat, although the pain was much more intense than usual. The small pile of packages outside my door from home were a wonderful surprise, as was the little hand knitted stocking with candy cane and rocky road.

Next up was a brunch with a rather large amount of food. Actually, here's the menu - I can't remember everything we had. As good as the food was, the sleep I had afterwards was amazing. I woke feeling great and ready for the rest of the day's activities.

We had a little parade with Santa and Mrs Claus followed by their misfit elves and a special appearance by Space Jesus. Then came the gluttony of the late lunch and the creation of a few more sore heads that evening.

L-R: The Christmas Pixie, Space Jesus, Mrs Claus, Santa, Enforcement Elf, Sultry Elf, The Alco Gnome.

Boxing Day started very late for most people and involved much rest and relaxation. There was going to be a Boxing Day cricket match between Australia and New Zealand, but rain stopped play.

On the Good Ship, Lollipop

On Tuesday I (and Dan the new comms boss) helped our TASPAWS rangers with their work as guides when the tourist ships turn up. The day started out with us being picked up on zodiacs and taken out to the Orion - a very classy, purpose built tourist ship. They have a sauna, spa, hairdresser, massage therapist, a gift shop that sells rather expensive pearls - even an elevator.

The Orion (or ice berg as it was accidentally referred to over the radio)

This particular voyage was bound for Commonwealth Bay (yes, that's in Antarctica for those playing at home), but they couldn't make land as the ice was very thick to about 450km off shore. Needless to say that the passengers were a little edgy about being able to get off here and stretch their legs, however the large swells made anchoring a problem for the ship. Instead we boarded and were given a room to freshen up in, then there was breakfast. We had a small helping of the buffet - omlette, toast, sausages, etc - but when Matt, the 2IC, had his bowl of fresh fruit and muesli placed on the table our jaws dropped to the floor and his wife was very kind to offer us a bowl of our own.

See the hunger in our eyes? (L-R: Dan, Claudia, Bree, Adrian and me)

Five very happy expeditioners

 The next few hours were taken up by the ship travelling up and down the east coast waiting for the swell to subside. In the mean time we had a little q&a session about our various roles on the island, then a delicious lunch of fresh salad (with mushrooms!), fresh fruit (there may or may not have been a rather large avocado stolen from the fruit bowl) and baklava.

Hurd Point as seen from the ship - there had been a reported sighting of an orca

We did eventually get off the boat at Sandy Bay and let tourists bother the animals - the wildlife didn't care and were actually very curious. Quite an experience seeing peoples first reactions to the wildlife and terrain. There had been a fog for 3 1/2 days previously,, which was already clearing in the morning, but, of course, the cloud cleared perfectly for them to a stunning day. Aren't we supposed to be in the sub-Antarctic?

A happy tourist with a frog - Kermit? Freddo? Don't know.

During the hours we were stuck on the ship there was talk of spending the night there, however as we were able to land at Sandy Bay, we were taken back to station.

Here's some of fun facts about a few of the passengers:

• Hailing from Armidale in NSW we had Bill and Sue Denison. Who? The grandson of Sir Hugh Denison and the namesake of Cape Denison and one of the main patrons of Sir Douglas Mawson's 1912 expedition. They were very interesting people although I only spoke to them briefly.

• There was a very cute 4 year old boy named Hunter who had complete run of the ship and I'm pretty sure is the youngest person to have ever set foot on Macca.

• All the way from Anchorage in Alaska, there was a lovely couple who, many years ago, just happened to attend the exact same university in Oregon as Julia, one of our Albatross researchers. Also, the wife and Julia just happened to have been in the exact same sorority.... and the husband's name is Leon...

Claudia enjoying the wind on the back deck.

Take a looks in today's "This Week at Macca" for a few more photos of the inside.

Plod, plod, plod

I spent last Monday to Friday off station, on another walking adventure. Most days the weather was not so great, a few clear periods (and a little sunburn), but mostly fog and drizzle were the order of the week. There's not as many photos as there could be, but that's because I didn't feel like taking as many pictures this time - and because of the fairly poor weather, there wasn't a huge amount to take photos of. However, here's a few of the good ones:

The royal penguin rookery near Waterfall Bay Hut

I travelled the length of the island again and one of the highlights was on the walk back towards station, when I met up with one of the dog handlers. I had the luxury of taking Flax the labrador back to the hut that we were both staying in that night.

The tourist vessel Akademik Shokalskiy taking a look at Lusitania Bay

Flax, arguably the best dog on the island

Juvenile royals on the beach at Green Gorge

A skua decided to see if my boot would be a satisfying food source. Obviously the blade of grass wasn't cutting it.

A young punk king penguin.

As always, I had a great time with everyone out there in the field and look forward to seeing them in the next couple of weeks for Christmas.

The Friendly Weaner

I went for an early morning wander around station on a lovely, still morning (the afternoon wasn't) and was greeted by the sight of a weaner with its mouth against the balloon shed doors and nuzzling the bolts. One of his mates, who was a few meters away, suddenly took an interest in me and came bounding over. Here's a little video of what happened:

For some reason this little guy was completely obsessed with my boots, it's a wonderful thing having this wildlife around.