The really unpleasant wind has gone, but there's still enough of a breeze to make it less than fun to stay outside for long. Interestingly, the temperature in Sydney reached +42 C yesterday. Given the choice, I would certainly choose the present weather at Dome C.

While I spent most of the morning tidying up and doing last-minute chores prior to departure, Suze and Jon wrestled with the problems of how to arrange Nigel's optical fibres for the best view of the sky. Nigel's fibres come in pairs - one optimized for blue light and one for red. We've decided we want one pair pointing straight up, one pair pointing north, low on the horizon, so the moon will occasionally pass through the beam and give us secondary calibration, and a third pair pointing vaguely in the opposite direction in case something interesting happens over there. After much sketching, optical fibre macrame and trial contortions we concluded that the original concept of a vice-crushed coaxial copper tube feedthrough needed further delicate refinement, which of course we did with the vice. Though I have not seen the result, Suze and Jon tell me that the Doubly Vice-crushed Coaxial Copper Tube Feedthrough is indeed a veritable masterpiece.

After a quick lunch it was time for the goodbyes and ciaos and hugs and kisses on the cheek that make saying farewell to a French/Italian community such a moving - if protracted - occasion.

Five hours later, after the essential refueling stop at Mid Point Charlie, we were flying low over the coast north of Terra Nova Bay. The Twin Otter first made a low pass over the alternate ski-way on Browning Pass, before climbing steeply away and weaving between the peaks of the mountain range, then dropping abruptly down towards the sea. We landed not on the frozen surface of Terra Nova Bay, but on a much smaller, sheltered inlet around the corner called Tethis Bay. "Sheltered" is a euphemism for "surrounded by monstrous great rocky cliffs on three sides". Approaching to land from the one open direction, one has the impression of hurtling with terrible inevitability towards a towering rock wall until, at the last moment, skis slither on the ice, the pilot applies a prodigious amount of reverse thrust, and suddenly all is still.

Clambering into two of the beat-up little four-wheel drives that make up the Italian ground transport, we climbed out of the bay over a steep ridge, and down again into the Mario Zucchelli Station. From there, the reason for our choice of an alternate landing place was obvious. Where, just two weeks early our Hercules had landed on metre-thick ice, was a sweeping, open bay with waves lapping right up to the shoreline. Apparently, once the ice started to break up, it was just a matter of days before it was all gone, carried out to sea by the relentless forces of nature.

It was just before 1 am when we landed, giving time for a quick snack before walking in broad daylight up to our overnight accommodation. Even after just two weeks on the Antarctic Plateau, and even after having done this ten times before, it was still a heady experience for me to walk again on rocks and dirt, to see running water on the ground, and to see the almost invisible plumes of hot air from the generator exhausts, rather that the thick white clouds of frozen water vapour that billow from every engine at Dome C.

I spent almost all of the following day asleep, rising only for meals.

Dinner was of course excellent, featuring fish and fresh salads. My dinner companions were elated to see the quartered lemons for the fish arrive without their peels. I was a little slow on the uptake here, and had to have the significance of this explained to me: the arrival of peel-less lemons at the dinner table could only mean that somewhere, in some quiet corner of the station, a new batch of limoncello liqueur was being distilled.

Most of my social interactions here have been with the pilots of the Twin Otters (Canadians) and helicopters (New Zealanders), as we represent a small sub-culture of Anglophones. The Canadians fly in the arctic during the northern summer, and in Antarctica for the northern winter. As one remarked to me: "Most of us Twin Otter pilots are bipolar."

As a transit passenger my sleeping accommodation was in a sixteen-to-a-room dormitory on the side of the hill above the station. Built to look like Tyrolean ski chalet, with simple, natural wood beams and cladding, it more than makes up for in charm what it lacks in privacy.

Friday also got off to a slow start. With the flight to McMurdo not scheduled until 11 am, sleeping-in was able to rise easily to the top the list of priorities.

Shortly before 11 we climbed into the strange assortments of vintage FIAT jeeps that make the Station's vehicle fleet and headed across the ridge to Tethis Bay - the only remaining piece of sea-ice in the neighbourhood still large enough to land a Twin Otter on (which admittedly is not very large). People often greatly overestimate the cost of Antarctic research, foolishly comparing it to space and similar grand human adventures. In reality costs are relatively modest, with much that can be done on a shoestring. The Skidoos we use at Dome C, for example, are extremely ancient, having been built shortly after the wheel was invented (and immediately found to be unsuited to snow), and many other things at the Station are hand-me-downs. By keeping the cost of Antarctic research low, much can be achieved here (particularly in astronomy) that would otherwise might require very expensive facilities elsewhere.

Although only 12 of us were flying out, a further 12 people came to the ski-way to say goodbye. Our pilots, Monica and Bob, were already refueling the plane, kicking the skis and transforming the plane from a "mostly cargo" to a "mostly passenger" configuration - a task which in the Twin Otter takes about two minutes. The "Ciaos", hugging, kissing (redundantly, on both cheeks) took a good 15 minutes, after which we were airborne. The weather was perfect - clear, bright and still. The first 20 minutes of the trip was flown very low (let’s say 500 feet, as I don't want to get anyone into trouble) as we skimmed across the sea towards McMurdo, weaving along the ice-cliffs and over icebergs and taking in the view. It was a perfectly magical experience.

In McMurdo we were met by an Italian-speaking reception party, which was a very thoughtful gesture by our American hosts. After lunch we toured Scott's Discovery Hut, which he built in 1902 and which played a major role in the "Heroic Era" of Antarctic exploration (ie, the era before Hercules, Twin Otters, Caterpillar tractors and GPS were invented). After an early (5 pm) dinner we headed out to our waiting Hercules, and were soon flying back to Christchurch.

We touched down in New Zealand just after 3:30 am. The timing was perfect for me to walk across the airport terminal and check in for the 6:35 am Qantas flight to Sydney. A shower in the Qantas lounge and a quick check of emails (1,215 new messages waiting in my INBOX - I'd rather not have known that…) and onto the plane. For the first time in my life I got a complimentary upgrade to Business Class. Converting the seat into a bed at the flick of a switch, I was fast asleep before we went through 10,000 feet. I was awaked by the jolt and screech of tyres on the runway at Kingsford Smith, having just set a personal best time of 14 hours Antarctica to Sydney.

So, for me the adventure is over for 2004. Suze and Jon will be coaxing the AASTINO into shape for another fortnight. Then, in January, Colin and Jessie will head to the South Pole for a couple of weeks. As for me, I'd better take a closer look at those 1215 emails......
- John

I have been assigned the heady task of taking over the diaries now that John has abandoned us out here in the snow...I shall continue the story...

Okay, the mission: get Nigel's fibre holder working. Jon and I trooped out to the AASTINO on foot, navigating our way through all the shipping containers and tractors, from the traverse, parked all over the place. John is leaving Dome C today, a day early because the sea ice at Terra Nova Bay has melted so much that the Hercules cannot land there. He is getting a Twin Otter to Terra Nova, staying there a night
or two, then back on the Twin Otter to McMurdo, Hercules to Christchurch, Qantas to Sydney - should be home by the weekend. Anyho, he stayed stayed back at the station in the morning packing up all his stuff and finishing off last minute reports and shenanigans.

Jon and I dismantled yesterdays attempt at the fibre holder - which seemed to have copious amounts of electrical tape around it - and started again. Another difficultly of working on the fibres is that due to one pair of fibres being shorter than the other two and the fact that the fibres are strung along the roof, means that any work we do on them has to be done in mid-air, while standing on an aluminium box and trying not to bend the fibres. We cabled tied and taped but still couldn't work out a way to get the angles we were after. The fibres got cable tied back to the roof - they are getting a real tour of the roof - and we went back to the drawing board.

John arrived at the AASTINO and added his brain to the discussion - there we were, thinking hard while sitting on a linux manual, garbage bin and aluminium shipping box. We came up with the idea of drilling holes through the pipe at EXACTLY 30 degrees and threading the fibres through these. Excellent plan. John went off to the first sitting of lunch leaving Jon and I to the do the precision drilling. (Due to the traverse arriving the population of the station has soared to around 50ish people, more than you can fit in the mess hall. Therefore, meals have been split into two sittings, construction folk in the first and the rest in the second.)

Using careful measurement techniques, calculations and precision instruments (a ruler, pencil, piece of electrical tape, some trig and a drill) we made the perfect fibre holder (when I say perfect think of it in the sense of plus/minus a little bit). Proud of our effort we decided we should patent the idea and walked off to lunch.

After lunch we hung around the station for awhile waiting for John's plane to leave. Papa Smurf shook the hands of his little smurfs, boarded the plane and took off, leaving the AASTINO in our more than capable hands (well Jon's more than capable hands and I promise I'll try not to break anything).

We returned to the AASTINO, commented on the mess that John had left (again here when I say John you should probably read Jon and Suze) and proceeded to make more mess. We arranged the fibres in the holder, secured the pipes with a bolt and filled the gaps with goo (silicon). This was a little messy as Jon had to hold the pipe at about my head height while I feed the goo in, trying not to goo the fibre holes or the tops of the fibres themselves. So with goo all over our fingers, my overalls and the top of the tool chest we were finished.

Feeling in the mood for a tortuous activity, in the afternoon we decided to try and realign the MASS instrument. This involves a number of fiddly tasks. First we take
"the segmentator" off and replace it with a piece of glass with a circle and cross hair etched into it. We then shine a light down the telescope which bounces off a beam splitter and into the MASS aperture. Then looking at the glass with the use of a "lupe" (magnifying glass) Jon moves the aperture position around until it lines up with the circle on the glass, using two screws to adjust the angle, and I tighten up 4 other screws which seem to have the effect of moving the aperture from wherever Jon had it. Once we've got that bit aligned the segmentator goes back on and we shine a light down the holes where the photo-multiplier tubes normally look. Then by looking at a reflection of the light from the segmentator, off the beam splitter, though the
telescope, off a mirror and onto the MASS gimbal - we try to work out if the reflection is in the centre of the telescope aperture. If it isn't (which it wasn't) we repeat the whole process again. We began in a systematic way and a few hours later still hadn't got it right. Being dinner time we abandoned the MASS for pork, waffles, chocolate, sugar cream and Italian homemade honey.

- Suze