Winfly (a series of 3-5 flights in the middle of August) is a time of year when the weather is a bit cold still. The flights sneak in to set up the station for the onslot of science that happens at mainbody (starting in early August) and support a few science groups (us) that need to be there as early as possible in the season. It is sometimes a bit of a difficult dance to get the planes in, and unfortunately, that has been the story thus far this year.

After a brief and highly anticipated two nights in New Zealand and being ready to fly, we have waited while a diversity of challenges have kept the flights not going. The good news is that yesterday, (which was Friday here, Thursday most places) the second of the flights made it in! Hurray! That is also exciting since we are on the 3rd flight – so we are next! After a morning of anticipation…. we got the dreaded “24 hour delay”. So we remain in New Zealand at least until Sunday. So instead of 2 nights in New Zealand, we are stretching into 11. Normally, this would be pretty awesome. I love Christchurch and I love New Zealand – however, we are staying in our hotel rooms to avoid catching COVID, while being tested every couple of days to make sure we don’t bring COVID to the “Ice”. So we make it out to the fresh air and distance from everyone to at least see grass and green before we see white and more white.