Latest / Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast / We chat to Paddy Gower about his exploration of Antarctica!

Transcript

We chat to Paddy Gower about his exploration of Antarctica! · Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: With the John and Ben Podcast. Cheers to Dilma making
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the world a bitter tea. Yeah, really good to be here.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's Disney on ice. The other day it's Pettigar
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: on ice anything like that.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: There isn't any I'm not in a Leo tad.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: I'm not skating, okay, yeah, because that was a prison show.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: There. It's greens high drama, Mickey and Minnie breakup.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: It seems like it all serious. It is really really
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: interesting documentary that you're doing. You've got antuctive for three weeks.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, so three weeks. I was down there
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: at the end of last year.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: What is it like there? Is it surreal? It is
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: just so mind blowing. I remember I got out and I.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Was just like, you know, if and how you know, yeah,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: because you visualize it for ages and then you get
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: out and it's just this massive white expense even and
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: then there's this blue skies. Yeah, you know, so weird, guys,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: twenty four hour a day sunlight. So now the sun
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: just did not go down. Cicadian rhythm, Yeah, your Cicadian rhythm.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: The cicadas were left well behind. I don't even I
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: didn't see cicada the whole time. There's no cicadas down
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: and down in.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Speaking wildlife, I was reading something last night. You were like,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: you thought you'd see polar bears, but obviously they don't
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: live it, And.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well I left that pretty quick there in the
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: there in the North Pole. So I was sitting around
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: with all these scientists and sitting there on the first.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Night, and I don't tell me you said it in
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: front of them. No.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: I was just about to say it, where are the
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: polar bear is? And then the scientist goes, It's amazing
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: how many dumbasses come down here thinking they're going to
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: see a polar bear? And I was like, oh, say,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: you know, yeah, I had to learn a lot about Antarctica.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: And you know, it was negative thirty five degrees and
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and so we actually went camping and on a beach,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: but the difference being, you know, we were right on
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: the beach, the difference being that the sea was actually
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: ice meter and a half thack, so you know, there's
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: no waves of water, wasn't going to lap up or anything.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: We're just sort of camping there. Here I am in
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: this tent and negative thirty five degrees.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Did you say the.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Night there or stayed three nights there really, and you
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: know you're in five sleeping bags. You know, there's an
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: outer layer, another layer, another layer, another layer, and another layer.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Then you've got to get the clothes that you've got
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: and shove them inside your sleeping bed because if you
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: leave them out over night, they'll freeze, so you got
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: to keep them warm. So then you sort of fill
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: up your seat bag with all this warm kind of gear.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: And then of course the first thing that happens when
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: you're sitting there is like, oh, I've got to go
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: for my big time Wii.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Yourself.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: You get to a bottle situation.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Too, and so you just get your bottle.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: You know, you've actually got to take your wiez back
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: to the base at the end of it, because you're
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: not it's a waste free environment. They don't want yellow
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: snow or yellow ice. Yeah, so you've got to.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Taking quite a few.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sorry for your listeners, for explaining all of the
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: ways together.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Fascinate because I mean, you know, like most of us
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: will never get to go anywhere, so like, well, if.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: You do go take a pea bottle and all the
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: polar bee is aren't they?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, everywhere is it just is it overwhelming in a
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: place like that, you know, because I can imagine there's
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: hardly anyone lives there.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's right. There's only a round about one
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: hundred people on the scott base. And then you don't
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: see people for ages when you're out on the ice
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: and of course you know it's white. It's just so white,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: and it's just so massive, and you're just sort of
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: standing there and and I remember looking at one day
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: and the sea was frozen and the top of an
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: iceberg was frozen into the sea. You know, that sea's
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: frozen around and locked an iceberg. And by the way,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: penguin's actually stink. I went to a Pengland colony that's
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: super cute. But they fat, they burp, they've got body odor.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: It was one of the things.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Mass is quite smelly. Yeah, Pengland colony is not a
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: kind of place you want to be. But they look
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: so happy on happy feet. There's smelly feet as well. Yeah.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know, there was lots of cool stuff,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: but yeah, it was really overwhelming, just the whiteness and
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: the power of it all. And the reason I was
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: down there is, you know, the scientists are afraid that
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: it's melting and that's a problem for all of us.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: I didn't realize it, guys, but Antarctica feeds into all
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: of the world's major oceans. It keeps the whole world care.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: It's like a thermostat for the world. And with it
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: melting and changing and basically humans missing it up, it
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: could all go and lead to four meters of sea
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: level rises.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Is it too far gone?
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: No, that's a really good question, John, And you know
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: the signists think, hey, maybe this is now we can't
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: stop what's happening to Antactica.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: We've kicked it off and we.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Can't actually put the genie back in the bottle, and
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: we may have to do sort of thing. The kind
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: of things they were talking about seemed really far out,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: but they make a little of sense, like, you know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: why are we living so near the coastline and so
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: many parts of New Zealand might have to change that
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: if Antactica does go. So that was you know, beneath
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: all of the sort of beauty, there's this incredible sort
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: of power that it has over the world.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: The whole thing looks about climate change, you know, and
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: you're a very positive person, you know, how do you
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: feel now think away because you want people to watch it.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: But do you are there some things that could give
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: you some hope to turning things around?
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think it's it's it's funny they
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: were studying algae down there, and now algae is like
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: moss and like it on your house, like I'm spraying
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: it and all that all the sort of time. But
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: the scientists were studying it and they were saying, it's
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: a big part of Antactica and a big part of
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: the sea, you know, algae, and they're looking at it
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: in bits, and it is changing, you know, algae is
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: adapting the way that it lives to put up with
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: like warmer oceans. And I guess that's the hope, is
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: that actually, as humans, yep, things might change in our world,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: but we'll find a way to live with it. Human nature,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: I guess is what gave me hope amongst what was,
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: you know, the changing of our nature. It sounds like
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: a cliche, but you just realize how insignificant you are
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: to the world.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Three weeks is a long time. Yeah, that's maybe a
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: bit too. No.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, I'm pretty cen to get out
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: of here, and I I was bunking as well. We're
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: in a bunk room in the base. You know, I
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: haven't slept in a bunk since I was twelve for
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: my cousin Steven. And you know, I was up on
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: the top bank. You know, it was bloody hard to
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: get up there. Yeah, you know, each I was like
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: time for bed. You know, like normally at home, you're
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: sliding the bed, it starts to relaxing.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: You're here.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: I am sort of like getting up to the getting
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: up to the top bank. So yeah, it was it
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: was a long time to be there. But everything took
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: such a long time to do, you know, to put
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: on my clothes to go outside, it took me about
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: forty five minutes, you know, so everything was really slow.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: And then by the time you're outside and you're working
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: so cold, and then you finally get and you guys
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: know how long it takes to get cameras and everything
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: set up, and you finally get ready to do an interview,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: and then of course you get brain freeze and you
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: can't remember the question.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Everything was just slow. Yeah, everything was super slow.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: And it's not like, oh, yeah, I drop down something
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: on my phone or I'll look at that because actually
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: it was too cold to get your phone out because
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: you couldn't get your fingers out of your gloves. See,
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: so it was you know, it was all those sorts
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: of things. So probably took about five times longer to
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: make anything. But yeah, three weeks was a bloody long time.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Pet on Ice Scott Base, Like what is that like?
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Like like a school kid, it's like a whole lot
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: of your granddad's or uncles sheds put together with links
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: in between them, and yeah, like a school camp. And
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: you actually go and you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner obviously,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: and then they'll have morning tea and afternoon tea. Basically
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: go in and eat the whole time. You're so hungry
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: working in the cold. It's so small that you do
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: not get one moment of privacy. Every time you go
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: somewhere ring family back home or something like that. You
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: think you found a little corner or somewhere and you're
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: about to go in, someone else is already in there
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: ringing their family back home.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you sort of you've got to get used to
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: seeing people the whole time. You go to bed, your
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: bunk mates there wanting to talk about using a covid
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: swab to get a sample of penguin poo before you
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: go to sleep.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: You know, this kind of thing.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: You know you're sort of surrounded by people all the time,
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: but you know you are. It was very inspiring because
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: you are with adventurous people who really want to push
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: themselves to the limit.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: This might be a super question, but how does the
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: plane land if it's all icy and.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: They've got an ice runway there. They've got anice runway there,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: and it's a big American plane, againtic American plane because
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: the American bases there. So yeah, there's an ice run
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: where they've done something with it. It's a good, good question.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: I didn't ask too many questions landing on ice, Just yeah,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: we're landing on ice. It's all ice down there. Yeah
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: it's a packed runway or some kind taking off, I
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: don't ask too many questions.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: All I know is we landed and we took off.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I was like good.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: From well anyway, there's probably like it's a probably good.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: It was not as bad as it was not as
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: bad as the landing as the landing on ice.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: It seems so fascinating and we're really fascinating documentary. Catch
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: it on three and of course three now as well.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Love to see your pet. Yeah, awesome guys, Thank you,