The sun is not up and I have not had a decent cup of coffee in about 24 hours, but here I am sending a last email from the Windsor, where I’ve been staying in Christchurch. Somewhere on the other side of town, the airplane waits fly to Antarctica (a C17 as it was noted with great excitement yesterday.. luxurious! should have seats!). I dined on sushi at Sala Sala last night with a group from Boulder (Josh, Shannon, Amber) headed to the Dry Valleys to do stream flow work, and another fellow (Andy) heading out to the Pole for Atmospheric observation work. Must leave now – the van to the airport will be arriving any second. Grandfather clock chiming the hour behind me…