August 9: Aurora from Wireless Hill

Another starry, yet windy and hazy night. Hoping for a repeat of the beautiful clear skies of earlier in the week, alas the good ol' Macca clouds rolled in pretty quick. Oh Southern Ocean maritime weather how you drive me crazy!



Aurora hiding behind the clouds to the east. Photo: Jacque Comery

Hazy aurora over the plateau. Photo: Jacque Comery

Beautiful green glow behind the clouds over the Southern Ocean. Photo: Jacque Comery

August 8: Snowy seal

Icy whiskers. Photo: Jacque Comery 

Elephant seal by the gate. Photo: Jacque Comery

August 7: Stars and auroras

A night of little wind, the clearest skies that I have yet experienced and a spectacular rising moon. Standing out in the crisp air in the wee hours, taking photos, watching the skies dance and the plateau coyly respond to the  building moonlight was a wonderful thing.
Had I been without a camera, I still would have stood out there soaking up the beauty afforded by a rare glimpse past the clouds and up into the skies above.
When you when you can cast your gaze above and see familiar constellations, like old friends, it matters not where you are geographically. We are a  tiny speck on our small blue planet, in a sea of galaxies. Relatively we are always close to home.

Aurora over The Nuggets. Photo: Jacque Comery

The Hamshack. Photo: Jacque Comery

Aurora to the south. Photo: Jacque Comery



Aurora reflecting on the bay. Photo: Jacque Comery

August 6: Leopard seal

Our first Leopard seal visitor. Just another beautiful creature taking a break...nothing to support the anthropomorphised view of evil and darkness that we humans so readily accept of many of the top order predators.

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacquie Comery

Sleeping leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Stretching out. Photo: Jacque Comery

Leopard seal. Photo: Jacque Comery

Jacque photographing the leopard seal. Photo: Andrea Turbett

August 5: Snow day





 

Garden Cove donga. Photo: Jacque Comery

Snow drifts at the Mess. Photo: Jacque Comery

Water tanks. Photo: Jacque Comery

The green store. Photo: Jacque Comery

Station buildings. Photo: Jacque Comery

Distribution hut a little buried. Photo: Jacque Comery

 

August 4: Attempted hike to Davis Point

Andrea (our Ranger in Charge) and I planned a trip to Davis Point Hut on the west coast, to collect marine debris and celebrate Andrea's birthday. Faced with an island blanketed in heavy snow from yesterdays blizzard we set out. We punched up the Doctors Track in hip and sometimes waist deep heavy snow. We took turns breaking track swapping every few minutes. The snow was densely packed and heavy like half set cement. When we made it to the top the drifts over the track were so deep we realised that without snowshoes we just were not going to get through... we enjoyed the view, and the much faster trip down, and headed back to VJM, a little defeated, but still pretty chuffed that we even made it to the top of Doctors.

View of station and north head. Photo: Jacque Comery

Snow drifts over the track. Photo: Jacque Comery

View to northwest, the plateau looks like a big melting ice cream. Photo: Jacque Comery

The view past the Razorback towards the Isthmus. Photo: Jacque Comery

The circular track in the foreground is the IPS installation which is no longer there. We lost the mast in the 85 knot wind storm last week.

 

Andrea pushing up through thigh deep snow. Photo: Jacque Comery

 

Me blending in with the track markers. Photo: Andrea Turbett

Jacque and Andrea. We made it to the top at least! Photo: Andrea Turbett.

August 3: Blizzard

The snow began to fall last night, and did not abate at all throughout the day. We have not had such a sustained fall since we arrived. A pretty white dusting soon turned into a blanket, and by evening, snow drifts almost a metre high had accumulated around the mess.


Me waking across market square from the mess to Cumpstons in the mid afternoon. Photo: Andrea Turbett

 

Working from the office on a snow day. Photo: Andrea Turbett