DBWI: Going on vacation to Antarctica, what should I bring?

I've decided to take a trip to one of the mining towns in the Australian Antarctic Territory in December, when it's a bit warmer. It's this little place called Wangallangu, which is some sort of Australian aboriginal word for "cold night wind" or something. Appropriate, I suppose.

It's amazing that they even have towns and settlements down there. An engineering masterpiece, if you ask me. Some of the people actually live there permanently, believe it or not. So, what do you think I should do while I'm there? Go seal-hunting? Maybe do a bit of skiing? I've never seen snow myself, before, let alone made so much a snowman - so what do you suggest?
 
A good set of clothes, I suppose some shop can help you out. Dressing right is an art when it comes to cold climate. Sun lotion because it's very bright and the Ozone layer is always thin in the spring. I don't know how far you will venture outside the camp but appropriate gear is always needed. And books to keep yourself sane and peppar spray to fend of whoever doesn't read books.
 
Don't forget you Penguin hunting license. :p. I have heard they make good burgers.

So I've heard. I guess it's a good thing they brought in those licences, though - the Emperor Penguin nearly went extinct from overhunting 20 years ago, before they brought in the Antarctic Game Management System. Good thing Greenpeace were there with their those mass protests.
 
Don't forget you Penguin hunting license. :p. I have heard they make good burgers.
Yes penguin burgers are tasty, yes they their eggs make wonderful omeletts, yes thier babies have feathers that are great for blankets and coats, but stop fucking hunting them! Why not just buy the stuff from a Swedish or Canadian farm instead of further endangering the few wild ones we have left?
 
Oh, man, I've always wanted to go to the AAT! In fact, I've been thinking of going in November 2010 after uni finishes for the year (not this year - I've been toying with the idea of using these summer holidays to drive all around Australia on Highway 1).

Well, obviously you've gotta go skiing. I'm not a fan of hunting, though, myself.
 
And books to keep yourself sane and peppar spray to fend of whoever doesn't read books.

I'm pretty sure Wangallangu would have at least one bookshop - I mean, it does have 150+ permanent residents and a thousand or so tourists each summer. Mining isn't exclusively the domain of illiterate grunts, you know :D
 
If you happen to be an environmentalist, definitely consider visiting during the "Earth Changes Festival" on May 5th. For the past 9 years the festival has commemorated the environmental changes that have taken place across the planet.

Personally the best food under the Southern Cross is easy to find... Apparently there is some fine white wine from Tasmania that gets flown in every week. I recommend the New Zealand truffles along with the Argentinean beef at McMurdo Sound....
 
If you happen to be an environmentalist, definitely consider visiting during the "Earth Changes Festival" on May 5th. For the past 9 years the festival has commemorated the environmental changes that have taken place across the planet.

I heard that really picked up in pace after the collapse of both Antarctica's Larsen-B ice shelf and Greenland's Melville Bay sea-ice in the same year. I'd like to go to that, but I don't think I'd be able to survive in the Antarctic mid-winter, artificial heating or no.
 
Well, if your going in summer, a romantic night for two in sone of those luxury igloos is quite the thign to do apparently. But if i were you, don't tell anyone, you know what the greenies are like about antarctic tourists.
 
If you happen to be an environmentalist, definitely consider visiting during the "Earth Changes Festival" on May 5th.

(OOC: May 5th? You mean during the Antarctic winter, when it's permanent night and inhospitably cold?)

Spitfiremk1 said:
Well, if your going in summer, a romantic night for two in sone of those luxury igloos is quite the thign to do apparently. But if i were you, don't tell anyone, you know what the greenies are like about antarctic tourists.
No one gives a shit about the igloos, man. It's the hunting that people have an issue with (and I happen to agree with that - hunting is barbaric IMO).

(OOC: Again, "night"? In the Antarctic summer it's permanent daytime.)
 
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