Wednesday, March 21, 2012

White Christmas


'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know...'

For most kiwis, dreaming of a white Christmas is an exercise in futility. Not so for the PCAS group who spent Christmas day camped on the Ross Ice Shelf with more snow than they know what to do with. Santa came to visit early on and roused a few sleepy heads from their icy beds, but Rudolph was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a Hägglunds served as both reindeer and sleigh, bringing a Christmas feast from Scott Base. The spread was impressive and a far cry from the pemmican Christmases of old: croissants, roast vegetables, ham, gingerbread and Christmas cake. We had a banquet, but where was the table? Cue: shovels. Before leaving for Antarctica we were warned that the course would involve much digging but none of us imagined that this digging would extend to creating a lounge suite out of a flat plane of ice.

Sue Ferrar’s rendition of a few Christmas favourites on her violin set a jolly mood as the students mucked in and dug. Antarctica is the continent of peace and science, so it was only fitting that upon finishing the final verse of ‘Silent Night’ we looked up to see a weather balloon slowly ascending and giving a shout out to the latter. Larger than the Canterbury museum, the weather balloons only go up twice a year, so to see one released was quite a treat. It was also a distraction from the lyrics of the next song, as the majority of us had had no experience whatsoever of ‘roasting chestnuts on an open fire’.

An open fire was nowhere to be seen, but we did kick off our Christmas meal with a toast to explorers past and present, savouring the nose of ‘whispers of gentle bonfire’ from our bottle of Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt Whiskey. Diligent as we were, the class had taken it upon ourselves to become enlightened in every area of Polar history before departing for the ice. The story of Shackelton’s whiskey, discovered during the hut restorations and subsequently reproduced for commercial sale, was particularly intriguing. When a 9am lecture was cancelled we filled the slot with a talk from the owner of Whiskey Galore and came away inspired by the descriptions of ‘a whisper of marmalade’ and ‘a tease of smoke’. What better way to celebrate Christmas on the white continent than to follow in the footsteps of explorers of old?

Dinner was rounded off with the giving of secret santa gifts, with highlights including a hula skirt and ukulele, both of which appeared in later skits, and several chickens. Yes, they were real live chickens, but before everyone gets up in arms about spreading avian flu to the penguins, they were bought through Oxfam and gifted to poor families in Laos. A necklace made of the rock ferrar dolomite for H. T. Ferrar’s granddaughter also had great personal significance for Sue and caused all eyes to turn to our resident geologist, rendering the ‘secret’ in ‘secret santa’ redundant.

Christmas itself was far from redundant, despite the fact we were all far from home on an icy continent. The teamwork and laughter and really bad singing made for a fun day and created memories of a white Christmas we will treasure for years to come. Sometimes your dreams do come true, after all.

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