I departed out of Denver, Colorado. I flew Denver to San Francisco, then San Francisco to Los Angeles on United Airlines. Then from Los Angles, boarded Quantas Airways flight 12 and flew to Sydney, Austraila. After another short and hectic layover, I boarded an Emrates flight to Christchurch.

Getting to Los Angeles from Denver was uneventful – standard united flights. Once at LAX, I began to meet up with a bunch more “ice people” – a few support staffers like me, a few specialized metalworkers going to build a fuel tank at McMurdo, and a whole bunch of scientists.