Sheridan here. Reporting from beautiful Christchurch, NZ! I’ve been unofficially officially dubbed the Blog Kween 👑 this season. It’s mostly a job I begged for… if we’re being totally honest here. As a rookie, I’ve followed the blog and the ANSMET team in previous years and I was way too jazzed to  not want to carry it on! But don’t you worry, the Blog Kween 👑 is not a dictatorship but instead, a collector of words. So while you may (or may not) hear from me a lot this season, the words come from questions/interviews/snippets from everyone on the team! I am also hoping that we can get a weekly rotation of people writing the blog. We shall see!

The remaining 6 of us (Brian with a y and John S. are already living it up on the ice) crossed the bigger pond and landed on this tropical island today (or what will be tomorrow for you! We’re in the future *jazz hands*). The flight was a whopping 15 hours for myself, Elena, Johnny Ringo, Brian with an I, and Paul. Jim was too cool for school and flew separately. He had a shorter flight but missed out on some team fun. The fab 5 had a blast on the longer flight. It was filled with many movies, nice naps, and thanks to Brian with an I, a pretty legit chat group. So, on these bigger cross-Pacific flights, there are individual screens on the seats for entertainment. One of those entertainment options is “Seat Chat.” Yes – you can message ANYONE on the plane. I was surprised we didn’t take advantage of that and prank some people. But we were polite and just created a fab 5 chat group. Sadly, Seat Chat doesn’t have an emoji keyboard or autocorrect but we had fun with it regardless.

We landed in Auckland with NO BAGS LOST!! Wahoo!! We went through customs and rechecked our bags to fly to Christchurch where we were greeted by the friendliest USAP (US Antarctic Program) representative. We also ran into ~10 others that we will be hitting the ice with. Picture above is all of us after arriving at our hotel, our bags taking up basically the entire lobby!

Upon arrival to the hotel, we dispersed but planned to meet up for dinner. I went on a solo adventure but what I learned when we got back together is that Paul will be consuming only scallops for this season! A goal of 2 lbs a day! Luxury. (We’re just kidding, Ralph!) For dinner we ate some classic NZ food… pasta and pizza! 😂

Tomorrow we get fitted for our Big Reds and Bunny Boots. So make sure to stay tuned!

Some other things to be mentioned:

-Elena went on her own adventure and noticed some pretty fun things. Like in the US, Bird Scooters have also taken over NZ. Unlike the US, the roses look different and have very long stems. They’re more like trees instead of bushes. She also saw that people here were playing cricket instead of baseball!

-Paul, our expert rockhound, found a rock shop in Christchurch. In true Paul fashion, he was very excited about it, as was I!

-Johnny Ringo says he’s happy to be here and Jim said he had a really great lunch at “Chilli Waki” if any of you are in the area!

-Brian with an I said he really enjoys the foliage here in NZ. We all discussed the different shades of green in different regions of the world. NZ has a particularly beautiful and lush shade. He also said the canopy is especially welcoming once you get off the ice. Which I think will be cool to experience.

Overall, a great day and superb start to the season. Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to subscribe to our page! And swipe up for more info! (<- This is a nod to YouTubers and Instagram Influencers. Here’s to hoping we get as many subscribers as they do!)

Until tomorrow,

Sheridan