How We Travel

On our journey to Antarctica, we will travel in many different ways.

First, everyone will go on airplanes to Christchurch, New Zealand. In Christchurch, we will have to wait for the weather to be just right to make the flight to McMurdo Station in Antarctica. McMurdo Station is the scientific research base in McMurdo Sound.

We will either be flying in a C-17 or C-130 military cargo plane, flown by the United States Air Force. Hopefully it will be the jet-powered C-17 which will take only 5 hours to get there. The propeller-powered C-130 will take 8 hours!

If the weather turns bad while we?re in flight, we will be forced to turn around. We will fly back to Christchurch, NZ. This is called getting "boomeranged". This can also happen when you are leaving Antarctica. Some people have been stranded at McMurdo Station for a week waiting for the right weather to fly home.