Pace of life increasing at McMurdo

Queenstown priest Fr Tony Harrison, who is working as a chaplain at McMurdo Station, Ross Island, the Antarctic, writes exclusively for the Queenstown Times.

The pace of life in McMurdo is increasing. Flights are arriving daily at the moment to help clear the backlog that was created by weather and mechanical faults.

There are about 815 people here, and some have already gone out to field camps. This week there has been a lot of training. Driver training is essential. People are trained to drive the ordinary vans as well as the heavy machinery (tractors, bulldozers, graders) and the ski-doos.

From my office window, I was able to watch the helicopter pilots going through their training. There are four helicopters on station, two twin-engined Iroquois and two Squirrels. The helicopters' main role is to take scientists out to their sites and also for resupply.

As for ourselves in the chapel, we are on the job. Mark Smith and I are meeting and greeting. Part of the task of the chaplain is to just be available to people.

I had the opportunity to go out to Pegasus Airfield to greet the incoming C17 and we were treated to a wonderful display of the "fata morgana". It is a mirage and looks as though you are looking at what might be cliffs. They rise and fall. One we saw looked very much like crystals hanging with the sun shining through.

Chaplaincy works out of the Chapel of the Snows. This is in fact the third chapel at McMurdo. The first chapel was built in 1956 from materials borrowed from other building sites. It was called the Chapel of St Dismus, who was the good thief crucified with Jesus.

The chapel stood in a prominent position at McMurdo and was the only building with a picket fence. It was destroyed in a fire on August 23, 1978, and was replaced by a Quonset hut in 1979.

In 1988, the construction of the present chapel was begun. It was fitted out during the winter and dedicated in January 1989. This chapel has a commanding view looking out over McMurdo Sound to the Royal Society Mountains.