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TVNZ cameraman Dan O'Sullivan arrives in Antarctica - Source: ONE News -
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It's hard to be graceful getting off a C-17 Globemaster. The front door isn't that big, and when you're dressed up like the Michelin Man, there's not a great stair-width to jacket-size ratio.
For those of us stepping onto the Antarctic for the first time, it wasn't any easier. With no windows on the five-hour flight from Christchurch, we really had no idea what to expect. One by one we waddled to the aircraft's front door, as a stream of bright light shone through it.
I wasn't prepared. I hadn't thought about that first moment, about what to expect. It was awesome. The great whiteness was far more epic, far more confronting than I'd expected. The landscape was baron bar a few American Hercules aircraft and a scrappy mess of huts. It was a white desert - the only thing which separated the cloud from the ground was a tiny and subtle change in colour, from mauve to a husky grey.
We were herded onto the bus. The Americans were eager to get back, and not quite as eager as we were to bathe in the enormity of the landscape around us. Cameraman Dan O'Sullivan couldn't help himself - he kept taking photos and pretending not to hear the grumpy bus driver as she barked instructions.
It dropped us at Scott Base. The buildings looked like big green refrigerators, and that's pretty much all they are (except they're designed to keep the cold out instead of in, of course!). The staff ushered us in, welcoming us like friends, as we sat through a gruelling 90 minute health and safety lecture. Scott Base might be 3,800km from New Zealand, but OSH still calls the shots.
