Air NZ Blog #5 - Ash

The weather was playing the game – no wind – and the mobile crane operators from McMurdo base came over on Monday. JD, Froggie and Danny were the American support crew who came with the crane. They hoisted and moved the two 40ft shipping containers down to our work site and over the next three days we broke down the drilling base and mast into three smaller pieces. It was a pretty tight squeeze into the containers but the skill of the crane operators was very impressive. A 20mm side clearance is not much to work with when we were locating the crow’s nest of the mast inside the container.

The Americans have plenty of new support vehicles down here but there are some fairly old trucks, buses, snow cats and other vehicles here as well. Some of these date back to the US Navy days from when they used to run McMurdo base in the late 1950s. Typically anything with a bit of character will be endeared with a colourful name to give it a bit of personality. These are some of the vehicles that pass by us every day: Ivan the Terra-bus, Shagnasty’s Nightmare, Lightning, Aneeda, Hot Shot and many more. I’m almost turning into a bit of a truck spotter, waiting to see what museum piece comes around the corner next.

With the drilling rig safely packed away, our attention has now shifted to preparing the camp support containers that will also need to be shipped back to New Zealand. Once again we ventured back out to Willie’s Airfield and after bulldozing away the snow drifted containers, we came away with another four containers. I wish it was as easy as that, but to get the four we needed we had to remove another 11 containers which were in the way.

We now have the camp generator, mud huts (these are used to mix the fluid which lubricates the drilling bit) and the hydraulic power pack for the drill rig. Any vents, ducts, pipes or electrical mounts on the roofs of these containers have now been removed and are ready to be loaded on the ship. There are still the containerised bunkrooms and a few other containers which we still have to collect and prepare, but that is next week’s mission.

This week over at McMurdo base an observation tube into the sea ice has opened. A one metre hole was melted through the two metre thick ice and a sealed steel tube with a ladder inside was lowered into the sea ice and secured to the top. Descending down the six metre tube you emerge with a 360 degree view through glass windows of an underwater sea ice world. I’ve already visited it twice and would jump at the chance to go back and look again. Ice crystals as big as dinner plates grow at fantastic angles in weird and wonderful combinations. It is a breath-taking and amazing sight to behold.

Stu Hanchet, a scientist from NIWA with Event K086, gave a presentation on Friday night about his work down here with the toothfish survey team. After melting holes in the sea ice they placed a fishing hut container over the top. They were then able to put down a 500m long fishing line/cable on a winch with underwater cameras. Some of the toothfish they caught were tagged and released and others were sampled to see what was in their diet and biopsied to determine their age. One toothfish had the same dimensions as one of the staff here at the base. It was a female, 30 years old weighing 50kg and 163cm long! The goal is to carry out an abundance survey to see how the current quota is affecting the toothfish population.  This may help with the creation of the world’s biggest MPA (Marine Protected Area) in an effort to help protect the biodiversity of the Ross Sea area. Once again New Zealand scientists are leading the way and great to see them in action.