Definition: Boomerang

boo⋅mer⋅ang

 [boo-muh-rang]

1. Spending 9 hours on an airplane when you land in the same place you started.

Here is a photo of the interior of the plane.

I was supposed to fly out of NZ to McMurdo in Antarctica on Jan 5, but the flight was delayed for 24 hours and I spent the day at the beach. Wednesday Jan 6 started well, with me waking up before my alarm went off at 4:45am. We all shuttled over to the Antarctic Center, put on our clothing and had our briefing. We boarded the plane at 8am. The airplane is a military plane that had a so-called "comfort pallet" put on, which is basically a removable insert of normal airline seats. There were 117 people flying, plus the normal aircraft crew, so pretty much every seat was full.

The flight from NZ to the McMurdo station takes about 4 hours. I am used to being able to look out the window during takeoff, but there are only a few small circular windows in the plane, so I just had to sit tight during takeoff. The flight was uneventful, and 4 hours later they announced that we were circling McMurdo waiting for the weather to improve so we could land. I should have hopped up to look out the window, but I didn't - some other people got some great pictures of the mountains of Antarctica. An hour later we were still circling, and they announced that we couldn't land and were heading back to NZ. So 4 more hours of flight. We landed again a but after 6pm, 9 hours after taking off.

Back in the Antarctic station, we picked up our "Boomerang Bags" and changed to go back into town and to our hotels. We get a carry-on bag and 2 checked bags, one of which stays on the plane in the case of a boomerang and the other which we get back for the night. I have been hanging out with two friendly and interesting people, Dan and Ann. They are here because they put in for a grant through NSF to visit Antarctica. Dan is a weather man for CBS out of Arkansas, and Ann is a writer from Washington DC who works in environmental writing and education. Dan put his shoes in his check bag, and so the only thing he had for footwear was his huge white Mickey Mouse boots that they issue for walking around in the severe cold. Fortunately I had put both shoes and flip-flops in my boomerang bag, so I lent Dan my shoes. The three of us went out to dinner, at which I ate a good chicken and mango-chutney pizza.

Then off to bed in expectation of flying the next day... which would be cancelled :(