8 December, 1996

December 8th, 1996

Bag Drag

Today we spent time packing up all of our stuff in preparation to return to Christchurch, New Zealand. We had to sort our things into several bags. We have a hold luggage bag which we would turn in this afternoon at bag drag. I called the chalet and was old it was an error that had already been corrected. We wouldn't get this bag back until our arrival in Christchurch. We have a hand carry bag which we will turn in as we get on the C-130. Finally we had our ECW which we would wear on the plane as well as our Passport, New Zealand arrival card, books and water bottles that we would carry with us on the plane. When I got to breakfast I discovered I wasn't on the manifest to fly home (everyone else in our group was).

After packing everything up we went to the lab to work on finishing the last of our samples. At 3:30 we went to Bag Drag. We took everything with us. We all meet at the building where there was a scale and a computer which would record all the weights. We first labeled all our bags with the flight number HLC-103 or something like that. We then weighted our hold bag(s) which were then loaded onto a truck. We next weighed our hand carry bags and then ourselves with all our ECW. I was listed on the manifest of passengers, so the error had been corrected.

We returned to the lab to finish the last of the samples. After dinner we cleaned out our lab. We took things back to the storage areas. Dr. Braaten has two wooden boxes that stay down in McMurdo in outdoor storage lines all winter. We also packed up a box of things that will be shipped back to the States on the cargo ship. It will arrive in Washington State and then shipped to Kansas University. Dr. Braaten will get the box in April or so.

As this was our last night in McMurdo we walked to hut point for the last time. We visited the Lady of the Snows memorial where their is a statue of the Madonna. This memorial is located on the way to hut point. We saw some more seals on the way to the hut. It was after midnight when we returned to our dorm.