In Christchurch

We made it to Christchurch mid-day today. The flight seemed short after the one from LA to Auckland. We’re staying in the Sudima Hotel, like last year. It is very convenient to the US Antarctic Program (USAP) offices - less than a block away. However, it is a dozen kilometers from downtown. Thus, we took a cab downtown to meet Ian for beers and an early dinner for us. Ian had other plans for dinner. As of today, he is a part time professor at the University of Canterbury, and he has a celebratory dinner tonight. We’ll catch up with him again tomorrow.

Plans for tomorrow:
1) Try to sleep in until 7 am (11 am Pacific Daylight Time).
2) Work on spill over items from my normal job that need to get done as soon as possible.
3) Ian will drop off his gear at 8:30.
4) Ride into town with Ian and get coffee and breakfast.
5) Buy some used books to take with me. I’m particularly interested in finding a book of short stories by Keri Hulme. I read her novel The Bone People after coming off the ice last year and found it amazing. I then bought her book of short stories called Stonefish. I’ve read it several times in the last year.
6) Buy a good kettle to heat water with.
7) Maybe buy some good scotch.
8) Maybe have lunch with Jenny, a friend of Ian’s who I met briefly last year. She did some nice geochemical modeling for a paper we wrote about another Antarctic lake - Lake Untersee. She’s a professor at University of Canterbury.
9) Go to the USAP Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) at 1 pm to get my cold weather gear and hear the details of our expected flight.
10) Go to the grocery store and buy tea and spices.
11) Get the rest of that pesky work done!
12) Eat dinner - maybe my last restaurant visit for a couple of months!
13) Get a good night sleep.

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