CBS provides the most info AND a video of the C-130 landing in NZ and off-loading! Go to article and view video button on right: (unable to copy to work here)
http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,286389-412,00.shtml

---snip from CBS article---
Similarly, rescuers were also forced to move quickly to evacuate four ill Americans at McMurdo Antarctic Base on the opposite coast of Antarctica across from New Zealand.

In a 15-hour round-trip journey, a C130 Hercules from Christchurch landed on the base's ice runway. At McMurdo, the plane spent just one hour on the ground to pick up the evacuees and refuel. Its engines were kept running throughout the stopover to prevent them freezing in the air. Temperatures were minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit).

John Sherve, New Zealand manager for U.S.-based Polar Services — which provides support services at the McMurdo Base — described the mass evacuation as "unprecedented."

Officials said the mission got a lucky break, leaving New Zealand an hour earlier than scheduled and avoiding deteriorating weather conditions in Antarctica.

"It was very fortunate … that we got in there on time, and out," mission commander John Cummings said.

"The weather was a little bit iffy … but we managed a quick change down on the ice," pilot Nathan McDonald. "It was a very successful day."

The four sick Americans were joined on the flight by seven other U.S. staffers, who Sherve said decided to return because of "family emergencies."

Two of the evacuees were suffering from "critical conditions," government research group Antarctica New Zealand said in a statement. The two had been transferred to a hospital in Christchurch, where their conditions were stable Tuesday night, the statement said. It gave no further details.

Even in good weather, landing
can be tricky at Rothera base
on Adelaide Island (AP)
There are 211 Americans left at the base following the evacuation, where they will winter until the next flights, scheduled in late August as Antarctica's spring begins. The evacuation flight carried fresh fruit and vegetables and personal mail to the ice-and-snow-bound base staff.

The off-season rescues are not unprecedented.

In October 1999, Dr. Jerri Nielsen, the lone physician at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was evacuated after she discovered a breast tumor that was diagnosed as cancerous.

Antarctica is home to nearly 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of the globe's fresh water. The third-largest continent, it is one-and-a-half times the size of the United States.

Nations including the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France and Argentina carry out experiments at bases dotted across the continent.