Fright Fest

In the land where science and steel toed boots meet, All Hallows Eve has once again come and gone. As you all know we live in the future down here so our spook fest comes a little sooner than you all celebrate it up North. This year’s extravaganza, as always, proved that our little town towards the bottom of the world, is filled with an eclectic bunch of beings . The “big gym” was transformed into a well decorated freak fest. It was obvious that some had been working on their costumes for a good amount of time, possibly months, while other folks may have made late afternoon skua runs to throw something together at the last moment. Regardless, of how much forethought and planning was put into outfits, everyone was certainly prepared to have a good time. (I didn't take any of the Halloween pics in this post, I got them from the town's public intranet drive)

The annual costume contest is broken up into three categories: most unique/creative costume, best group costume, and finally best Antarctic themed costume which, of course, always includes some sort of penguin.

In the most unique/creative costume, it came down to Oscar the grouch and the Kiwi entry of Winnie the Pint. Although the Kiwi costume had boisterous support from a small crowd of rambunctious mates in the crowd. Oscar the Grouch came away with a well earned victory.

Oscar and Whinnie the Pint (who in my opinion should not have been a finalist)

The best group costume came down to the Building Full of Cougars and Fish. The Building Full of Cougars was the costume that I was part of. My work center is the BFC. BFC stands for the Berg Field Center. It is named after a man who was killed in a helicopter accident on the continent. Historically, the building is staffed by a mostly female crew, and because of this it is known by many as the Building Full of Chicks. For Halloween we switched up the name a bit and changed “Chicks” to “Cougars.” They all dressed as older ladies on the prowl and carried around bottles of pink wine. My role in the costume was the cougar wrangler. I was supposed to keep them under control. This is a task that I don’t think I was completely successful with. The competition, fish, were exactly that, fish. The contest was a real nail biter and contrary to a mostly male audience hooting and hollering in favor of the more scantily clad cougars, the fish flopped to a victory.

The building full of cougars with the fish in front



The winning costume, the fish.

One more fish shot

The third and final category was won by dumpster penguin, which I don't have any pictures of. It was a dude dressed as a penguin inside a trash can.

Halloween is always a pretty fun night. It’s always a treat to see what people have put together for costumes. I also always find it pretty interesting that unlike Halloween back home which seems to be a big holiday for females to show off a lot of skin, down here the opposite seems to happen. There is usually an abundance of “man skin” on display. I suppose it makes sense, because after all we are on the opposite side of the planet. Happy Halloween!

Christchurch on my way through. The building in the background surrounded by cranes is the hotel I stayed and checked out of the morning of the earthquake. Now it is leaning and waiting to be demolished.