The festive season

Christmas and New Years in Antarctica was a great experience shared with fine company, fine food and plenty of cheer. First thing I did after a leisurely sleep in was open my box of gifts I’ve had stowed away since leaving Hobart waiting for December 25th. To my delight my wife had organised an assortment of gifts from herself and some of our friends. A good start to the day and enough lollies to keep me going for a while!

After brunch we had a visit from the man in red. With an absence of Reindeer he instead had a few of the locals pull the sleigh into station. Santa then spent the next hour and half distributing the Kris Kringle gifts we exchanged with our fellow expeditioners.

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After a relaxing afternoon we were treated to some amazing and decadent food prepared by our Chefs Nick, Lesley and Herman. The dining room was decorated, white linen, candles and the walls adorned with the flags of nations who are signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. We sent out Christmas photo to the other Antarctic stations, and received many messages of holiday cheer from bases of different nationalities down here.

For boxing day we had an easy going day with plenty of left overs from ‘catch and kill’ (the help your self fridge) and a BBQ cooked by the slushies (Kitchen helpers) as the Chefs enjoyed a well deserved break after their marathon effort in the kitchen in the lead up to Christmas Day.

After Christmas it was back to work for the week in the lead up to New Years. I was mostly working on some cabling that had to be completed to allow for some other infrastructure work to take place.

New Years Eve we enjoyed a spit roast and indulged in an spectacular croquembouche put together by Herman. We were entertained by our “Have A Craic” talent night put together by AGSO Trev. A great display of talent, thanks to all who had a craic!

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As midnight rolled around we all assembled on the LQ deck to cheer in the new year under the Antarctic Twilight. We raised a glass to toast each other and wish everyone a happy new year. It was nice to wish all the best to the other 18 people who I’ll be spending the winter here at Davis with so I made a point of shaking hands with everyone.

Our resident band Pineapple Express performed again to a wild crowd and everyone got into the spirit. The music and company was too good to miss so I didn’t make it to bed until after 3 AM. A good night was had by all.

Special thanks to Greg (Met Tech, photographer extraordinaire) for many of the photos in this post. Great shots! Thanks for reading.