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Comment by mark_l_watson | Hacker News Reader

In the 1970s, there was a woman in my social circle from New Zealand. She did two tours of work in Antarctica. Both times she said she took 500 condoms and two cases of liquor as part of her allowed personal luggage. I remember her talking about life there, basically periods of difficult work and lots of free time also. She said that it was an interesting experience but that two tours were enough.

Another friend in our social group had a job freeing trapped porpoises from tuna nets. As a programmer, my work life seemed tame compared to my two friends.

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I’m sure I’ll be laughed at, but I wonder what the condoms were for. How long is a “tour”?

I’m assuming she wasn’t sexually active 100% of the weeks in her tour, so 500 seems like a lot even if the tour was for a year. Were they distributed among colleagues? Were they used for some other interesting reason (like when the Top Gear presenters took viagra when driving over a volcano)?

Or is there really nothing else to do in Antarctica than have sex all day?

"About four or five months for typical summer contracts (October thru February) in McMurdo, three and a half months for a summer south pole contract, or thirteen months for winter-over contracts. A winter-over usually starts at the beginning of summer (October-ish) and lasts until the beginning of the next summer."

http://www.60south.com/about/faq.htm

I also really enjoyed this quote from the same page:

"The first time you come down for the adventure. The second time for the money. And the third time because you can't function anywhere else anymore."

That FAQ is super interesting, but this line made me even more confused about the woman with the 500 condoms.

> About the only thing the dispensary ever dispenses is advice. Drinking is officially sanctioned, condoms are freely distributed and sledding is against the rules, which gives you some idea of the managing philosophy.

Also, this line made me giggle:

> Just don't come down here expecting a good love life (unless you're a woman, in which case the odds are good but the goods are odd).

Probably those freely distributed condoms are the leftovers from that lady's trip.

You can trade them for weed.

> freeing trapped porpoises from tuna nets

Is less glamorous than it sounds

>>Both times she said she took 500 condoms ...she said that it was an interesting experience but that two tours were enough.

I guess she knows best, at some point it does take a toll on you :)

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