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The winfly thread I believe if for people that leave today or tomorrow i think? I’m supossed to go around 1 October they say. I just had my dental today and put it all in the mail so after I fax my newly aquired passport, i’ll be all done.
I guess my tickets will come soon after so I wont know exactly when my flight is until that point, but those of us leaving around that day can join here and figure out who we are until the details arive. It seems like most people on this are leaving now though so who knows.
I do have a question thought… I’m gtting to the point where im buying boxes to pack with mail stuff and i got my packing bags for the suitcases. what i do is buy those gallon size zip lock freezer bags and put my clothes in them, rolled up real tight then squeeze the air out of them to fit about another %25 in, plus itll all stay dry if it pours along the line. Anyway this is the first time ive flown as a civilian and had to take or mail what ill need with me, so I’m wondering about my detox tea and vitamins during customs. Ive bought a 6 months supply and taken them from the boxes to condense space and loaded them into some plastic containers that i plan to stick in my box to mail, plus i have to get 6 months worth of vitamin a,b,c,d,e, and k, plus some omegas, garlic (softgels) and some basic amino acids. I’ve been on a health kick recently. Anyway im wondering if these would be taken for any reason, like they could say that they might be drugs or whatever. Oh yeah, how do you get batteries down there? i dont think i can mail them cause theyre hazerdous, but i dont want them in my suitcase either. I plan on sending down a nice pillow, decent sheets for the bed, a small fan, extention cords, a large supply of lotion, tooth brushes etc. ANything I’m missing that a must have down there?one very easy way to do all this is through drugstore.com….for all your mcmurdo needs. if not, you should probably include bottle lables for all your vitamins just in case. there’s a store down here with all kinds of stuff too, all your basics walmart-type items in case you forget anything.
don’t forget your halloween costume.
VOG —
If you’re sending sheets, be warned that most of the twin beds down here are XL (extra 6″ in length). If you’re planning on using batteries, consider rechargeables. More expensive, yeah, but cheaper in the long run. Velvet was correct about drugstore.com. They have a great variety, and even have GNC products. They ship down here with no problem.
Your ticket will come a week or two before you’re su=pposed to leave. Travel usually waits till the last possible minute before shipping the tickets out. When I came down here last October I received my tickets six days before my deployment date. You get used to it.
If you’re supposed to leave home on the 1st, then you’re probably going to be on the first or second Mainbody flight. You’ll lose a day crossing the Int’l Date Line, and spend a couple of days in Christchurch.
You’ll meet a butt-load of Ice people at LAX. Just look for the brightly-colored USAP luggage tags. Hope you enjoy the 12+ hour flight to Auckland. Just keep in mind that as cramped as it is, it’s alot more comfortable than the United flights used to be.
When you get to AKL, just follow everyone else. After clearing immigrations and customs, most people walk over to the domestic terminal. The flight down to CHC is only about an hour, but can get bumpy. It’s never stopped me from sleeping on it, though.
When you get to CHC look for the USAP reps. They’ll do the hand-holding from there.
Safe travels, OG. See you later in October.
aThanks for the bed size thing, thats golden. As for drugstore.com, I’d use it but i dont have a credits card and im sure its would take weeks to get down anyway. the vitamins are going to remain in teir unopened bottles and I’m mailing the tea so i guess I’ll be alright. I’m gonna mail a little CD boom box thing and im bringing CD’s and a few DVDs but i want to make sure theres an outlet to view them…I cant imagine there wouldnt be a dvd player in the dayroom or whatever its called.
One last thing though is the mailing issue. I will be getting an address to mail myself stuff for free right? An APO adress? And I hope I can do the same thing ocming back too.We pretty much do the same as you. Mail the vitamins, but cut the label off the bottle and include it in the package. Declare it as vitamins on the custom forms. We bought the travel space saver bags from walmart. They do the same as the big ziplocks but bigger.
Make sure you have a carry on with a change of clothing for traveling. I have one that fits under the airplane seat in front of me. I carry an MP3 player with nice headphones that cover my ears. They blanket out the noise. They also came with an assortment of adapter plugs for the airlines. When you listen to the movies with good headphones, it makes all the difference in the world how much you enjoy the movie.
Don’t rely on getting batteries down here. Some years they have them and some years they don’t. I mail them. I don’t think I’ve had a problem. I never thought about them being unmailably hazardous. I use the nickle metal hydride batteries a lot. We have a small wall charger and I always keep a good supply. If you are coming for the winter bring a nice pocket flashight. Even better one of those headlights. The LED ones use the least power and are quite bright. Regular batteries seem to do better in the cold, but most of your battery use will be indoors.
If you are a music lover. Bring it down in MP3 format. We use RIO flash players, Lots of people like the hard drive players like IPOD. It’s just too bulky to travel with regular cd’s. I have an external hard drive that has everything on it. It takes up a tenth the space of the old cd books I used to have. The RIO runs off one AAA battery and lasts all day. I just load in the music I want to hear in the morning. Oh yeah I also have a laptop, but the station computers will read my harddrive. They won’t read my RIO without the drivers. We are administrativly locked out from loading any programs on the computers. So I bring down a laptop. I also use it for photos and editing video. If you want more info on that ask in a separate thread.
Mike
Oh yeah OG
Don’t forget the Halloween Costume. There is a big party on halloween weekend. It’s always a lot of fun. Mail it now in small packages and keep your fingers crossed that it gets here by halloween.
Christmas dinner is a big affair as well. Lots of very dressy people. You might want to send down something nice to wear. You’ll see lots of tuxedos and suits. Lots of ties. Lots of black dresses. It’s a fun time.
You might also want to send down a package of burnable CD’s. They are usually available in the store for a couple of dollars each, but they often run out. Even if you don’t have a digital camera, there will be enough free photos floating around for you to take home. CD’s are the only way to keep them.
If you are bring down a digital camera that takes special batteries, then bring down lots of extras. The batteries can go dead in minutes in the cold. Best are the external battery packs that you keep in your coat and run a wire to the camera. If you are a serious photographer bring a tripod. Less important in the summer. Absolutely essential in the winter in the dark.
If you are a coffee lover send down your own coffee. There is a grinder in the galley. The store also sells beans which are not the best, but better than the stuff in the coffee dispensers. I use a travel coffee press. It’s the way to go for me. Much easier than using a drip machine. I use the Big Sky Bistro. Look it up on the web. I got mine from REI. If you have room send down something to boil water in your room. You can always go to the galley for hot water, but its nice having it in your room before work or on the weekends.
Mike[font=Arial:q1z4hv49]Hi, Operator![/font:q1z4hv49]
[font=Arial:q1z4hv49]Mike’s already hit most of the advice you could ever need, but here’s my 2 cents:[/font:q1z4hv49]
[font=Arial:q1z4hv49]I can’t imagine you not wanting a credit card while traveling – might be worth looking into, if just for purchasing random items from the ice. Quite convenient.[/font:q1z4hv49]
[font=Arial:q1z4hv49]The [/font:q1z4hv49][font=Arial:q1z4hv49]APO[/font:q1z4hv49][font=Arial:q1z4hv49] mailing addresses are in your USAP handbook. Significantly cheaper, but certainly not free! It still gets expensive very quickly, which is why I enjoy purchasing the heavier items from drugstore.com & letting them foot the shipping charges. With specials or a large enough purchase, it’s often free![/font:q1z4hv49]
[font=Arial:q1z4hv49]Good luck & have fun![/font:q1z4hv49]
[font=Times New Roman:q1z4hv49]Erica[/font:q1z4hv49]
Mike – I’m so behind on the times that I’ve never had an MP3 player. Or a digital camera. I did see a digital deal for $99 in office max when faxing my passport today, i guess thats not so bad. I’m NOT a phototgrapher as you may have guessed, but i def want to send my kids pics and have some for myself. I’m gonna pick up an mp3 palyer and try to figure out how to work it cause this cd book is quite large and heavy. I dont even get what youre saying about RIO.
OK OG
You may need a little help from someone with this at first but in the end it’s easy. There are 2 types of MP3; players. Flash card and Hard Drive. The IMAC is the best known of the hard drive type. They hold an incredible amount of music. The old ones were 20 gigabytes and they are getting bigger all the time. They are a little bigger than the flash card types(but not that much bigger) and spinning a hard drive means extra battery power is needed. The big advantage is that you can put a sizeable portion of your music collection on the player.
The flash card players use a memory card like a camera. You store up to 1 gig at a time. Their advantage is that with no moving parts, they can be smaller and run a long time on one aaa battery. 250 meg cards will give you hours of music without repeating.
You can start the process now by ripping (converting to MP3 or WMA) your current collection and storing the files on your computer. Find almost any kid and they can show you the process. Once you have the files you just copy them to a data CD. In original CD format you can only get one album on a CD. In MP3 format you can get 5,10 or more depending on compression. Again find a kid to explain it to you.
Ask around, get a basic idea how the players work with your computer, then get back and we’ll fill in the gaps.
Mike
You are right Atlas. Sorry. What is your recomondations for music. Bring down cd’s or go with mp3.
OG
I have a big external hard drive that I keep all the music on. You might try that as well.
MikeHello, all –
OG: regarding a boombox or something like that, I was down on the Ice last summer season and at Skua Central during Winfly there were PLENTY of small stereos and etc. for folks to take. You might just want to skip bringing a stereo down and see what you can find that others have left behind.
All the best,
Hunter Slaton
They called and i got my e-mail today with the details. 50 POUNDS PER BAG!!! They MUST be kidding!!! It used to be 70 and once I fill up a duffle bag im right about at that limit. I have no idea how i’m going to handle this. Apparently I’m going to have to just take a few pairs of socks and things like that, and buy some in NZ.
I leave LA at 9:40pm on the 1st and arrize in NZ 6:10 on the 3rd.
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