Most women look for men at the gym, at the bar, maybe at a library. But what happens when a woman decides to search for a husband in the most remote corner of the earth and Arctica Hi, I'm Alicia Rai.
And I'm Sarah Wendell. Welcome to lovestruck daily where we bring a true love story your eardrums each and every weekday. I'm in love with the love with you, Alicia, what's the farthest you've traveled?
I think India. I don't think I've traveled any further than that for the longest flight time. Definitely. But I want to go everywhere. I feel like I got bitten by the travel bug right before the pandemic and then I never got to realize any of my travel dreams. But it worked out for me because I found love right here home. So now I got a travel partner. We're thinking of maybe doing for our honeymoon, just we both work remotely. So we were like instead of taking like a vacation and doing a proper honeymoon like that, let's just do like a month and travel everywhere, anywhere that we wanted to go and couldn't. Oh,
that's a good idea.
Yeah, I think that'll be fun.
That's what we did for my son's Bar Mitzvah. He's very introverted. And I said so what if we did like a casual party at home and that will be instead of investing in this big party will travel? So we went to Japan for two weeks. Oh, that's lovely. It was amazing. is absolutely amazing.
You know, that was that was on our list actually for our honeymoon was was going to Japan. I you know, Kai's really into like everything, you know, he's into animation and anime, you know, all that stuff. So, but I was nervous. I was like, what if there's nothing for me? And then oh, I found out. I'm not much of a gamer. He's obviously like a much bigger gamer than me. But I loved Super Mario back in the day. And they have a Super Mario World there. Yes, they do universal so I was like, okay, we can go now. I'm intrigued by this.
And I can tell you on New Year's Day, the year we were there on New Year's Day, we went to Fujiyama amusement park, and on New Year's Day, the first day of the year, we're looking at Mount Fuji as we ride some of the greatest roller coasters we have ever experienced. It was cold and we didn't care. It was amazing.
I don't mind the cold. I grew up in Buffalo, I'm fine with it. You're fine. I'm fine. I grew up in the Arctic or the Arctic of America.
Speaking of the Arctic, and places that are cold, we are thrilled to welcome a couple today that knows all about the cold places, Nicole McGrath and Cole Heinz fell in love in the most unlikely of all places, Antarctica. Welcome, Nicole. And Cool. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thanks. So real simple question. I'm sure you get asked this all the time. Tell me how you met. It's a bit of a story. It's a fun story. One story.
I back in 2011 was kind of in between careers, I needed some time to kind of figure out what I wanted to do with my life. And my roommate at the time, just stumbled across this. This article on Reddit about working in McMurdo Station, down in Antarctica, I thought it'd be a great way to kind of help find myself for a few months and a few months turned into several years. And it was my third deployment in 2013. I was working in the galley in the kitchen.
How did you end up going to Antarctica,
I found out about a working holiday visa in Australia. I went and I worked in Australia for a year. And then when I did that, when I was looking, I was just trying to look up like how can I live and work abroad? Like where can I go? That would be fun. And I stumbled across someone's blog about working in Antarctica. And I thought well, that's cool, because who gets to say that they went to Antarctica, you know, like, not too many people. Right?
So your your goal then was I went somewhere really far? Can I go somewhere even farther? Basically,
my parents was like, always trying to get far away from us, which I love my kids. But I was just like, how far can I go?
And the prerequisites for say going to the moon? It's it's a lot. It's a lot of a lot of hoops to jump through to get to the moon but Antarctica. I actually even looked
into the astronaut program and not the right guy and I didn't have the right qualifications whatsoever.
So you tried for the moon, you ended up in Antarctica. Now I understand that you joke a lot that you went to find a husband in Antarctica. Is that Is that a true joke or is that like a we've gotten this question enough? I'll just spin it and say that was my whole intention.
Well It was never my actual intention. But I'm not gonna lie, it was in the back of my mind like, well, maybe someone down here and that would be really fun. Well,
I mean, I've heard that the population of Antarctica and the stations is a lot more men than women. It is. So the odds are very in your face.
But they have a saying about, you know, women who want to date down there, they say that the odds are good, but the goods are odd. So just keep that in mind.
My brother and sister are both in engineering school. And that's also the they say about engineering.
Also very male dominated, you know,
industry. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Yes.
I would really love to hear some of the details. What were the first things you noticed about each other?
So for me, it was the day after my my birthday, so I celebrated a little bit the night before. Yeah, I got to come in an hour late the next day. And, you know, I had a pretty good idea of who I'd be training, I had three guys that I was supposed to be training that day. There were three guys in there. But then there was also a Nicole. And I remember just walking back. We were we were training in the pots room. She was the most gorgeous woman on station was there. And I was just like, What are you? What are you doing here? Why are you? Why are you in a pot? You should be here.
Nicole, what about you? Do you remember what you first noticed about coal?
So I noticed when he walked in, and he came in to check this training schedule and see who was working and stuff. So I remember seeing him walk up and look at the clipboard with all the papers. And I remember, you know, like, Oh, he's read like, that's the I like redheads said he had. And he had a you had a Dallas Cowboys cap on. And then yeah, he came in to the classroom after that. I was like, I'm here to train you. And I was like, oh, okay, cool. You know, I remember just thinking he's really cute. I wonder what his deal is?
How is dating in that environment? What's that? Like? How is it dating in Antarctica? You can't go to the movies. You can't go to a pub. I mean, you could take a walk, but you got to be safe about it. What's it like to date in Antarctica? Well, you
actually can go to the pub, because that's the one thing that pretty much everyone there does constantly there's a bar,
there's two bars on stage.
See, that makes sense.
I always say like going in Arctic is almost like stepping back in time. Because there's no Wi Fi, there's no cell phones. I mean, technically, there's Wi Fi for like the scientists but not for like regular people to just use email, you're not gonna be able to use it to like, just check your social media or anything like that. Everyone is living in this college like dormitory with a bar Yeah, with bars. And and like you said, it is like a very dangerous environment. So like leaving station is very highly regulated, you have to do the training, you have to check out there's only a few places you can go. So you're kind of stuck on this station. And you don't have a ton of options, in terms of like just getting out and about. And so you're gonna see the same people constantly. And it's really nice, because you can just you just have a built in community, like you're forced to be part of this community. I mean, everyone was part of it, but you're forced to it. And so there's no like, trying to schedule like, hey, let's hang out on Saturday, and I'll text you and we'll meet up at this point, you're just like, I'm gonna see these people every day at breakfast, lunch, dinner, the bar afterwards. So in some ways, dating is very informal. It makes it really easy to make friends and get to know each other. And then the flip side of that is you do have moments where it's really hard to find privacy because everyone's living in this communal space. You don't get a lot of alone time for just even if you want to just be hanging out by yourself. But then especially if you're you know, trying to just be the two of you. So
yeah, oh, that's that's not my like alone time. How did you find time to just get to know each other and be alone together?
Well, I first day was really I asked him to go on a hike with me. So there's one of the hikes that you can do that's very close, but it's to an old Antarctic cut, you can walk around on the outside of it, it's really pretty view of the sea ice. So I wanted to go check it out. And I thought, well, you know, I thought that guy was cute. Maybe he'll come with me. So we did that hike that like so hikes is a good way to get out just the two of you.
There's also this, this hut for distinguished visitors. So if anybody important is coming to station, they'll stay in this and that's just kind of a two bedroom with a full kitchen look much better than what we had. When no one's staying, you know, you can reserve it for the night and you can throw a party or just kind of do whatever. So you know, I reserved it for a night news party. We're about halfway through the season, because it's for distinguished visitors, it's always pretty well stocked. So there were some some really high quality steaks in there and some good food. Yeah, I cooked up a couple steaks. And you know, we had a private dinner, a bottle of wine. And
that's lovely. I've never been so impressed. I was like, This guy is cooking for me. And like, we're all the meals are provided, but he's taking the time to actually cook me a home cooked meal. Like that is nice. So
not gonna lie. The Texan in me really wanted a good steak.
Yeah, I was, I was gonna say you come from beef country. So this is serious business right here,
it was a very memorable night. For me, it was really nice. And it was it was almost like you're playing house because it's essentially a small little house. You know, for the night, you get to pretend. So
you're in Antarctica, you are, pretty much everyone's living in each other's pockets, you have all of this time together. And then your season ends now. Cool. You said you done three, that was my, and Nicole, this was your first and it came to an end. And what happened?
Call was originally supposed to stay for the winter, the winter season, it's a much smaller staff. And the positions are a lot harder to get. He was finally going to get to do winter. And you know, at some point in like January, a lot of couples kind of formed down there. And you kind of have to have that conversation in January of like, so what are we doing? Come next month? You know, like, what's gonna happen? Yeah. And I was, I had a working holiday visa for New Zealand. And Cole was like, what if I came with you. And in my mind, I was like, well, that means you have to give up your winter contract. And the last thing I want is for you to give up your winter contract, follow me through to New Zealand. And then like, you know, I just was like, I don't want to be responsible for changing your plans. And, and so we kind of had that a
fight, but it was, it was just kind of like coming to terms with where the relationships ending. You know, I told her, I really don't think I want to stay for the winter. Now I'm, I would like to come to New Zealand with you, if I understand, you know, this is all kind of new. And if this is something you want to do by yourself, I understand completely, but you know, I think I'll probably just wind up going home, instead of staying for the winter.
We kind of were talking for a couple days, while we were figuring out how we felt about things. And, and then I thought, wow, you know, I really miss talking to him, you know, it's only been a day or two. Yeah, I miss talking to him. This is what life will be like, if we decided to go our separate, I will really get to talk to him again. So then I was like, okay, you know, if you're, if you're willing to come to New Zealand with me, then I want you to come to New Zealand with me.
When did you know you wanted to marry each other.
So for me, you know, we, we had the highest of highs, we were together 24/7 In the beginning for the first season in Antarctica, all through New Zealand. And then her second season, she went back to Antarctica, and I just, I wound up not going that season, I took a year off. And it was it was really tough. While she was gone. When she got back, I had a job lined up in Colorado working at a national park. And she had a job lined up in Florida with her local government. And she she flew out to Texas and we took a road trip to Colorado to move me there for for my my temporary contract. It was on that trip, you know, it was just, I don't know what it was. I can't really, you know, put my finger on any specific event. But, you know, while we were on that trip, I just remember thinking like, I think I'm probably gonna wind up asking her to marry me while I'm out here.
So he asked me to marry him and I was just like, what? This is all happening. So you know, I wasn't expecting this for like another year. So let me let me think about this. I need some time to think about it. And then a lot of our our dating history and our romance was about like coal diving all the way in being all in and then me being overthinking everything and being like, but I can't figure out what this will be like because I'm a planner. I wanted to plan it all and I couldn't see how I would play out and and call just being like, it doesn't matter. And then I'd be like You're right. It doesn't matter. Let me just dive all you know, dive into I'll be all in. So I guess that the proposal is when I figured out yeah, I'm gonna marry this guy. Oh, yeah. We were coming up on like eight and a half years together. And we've been married for five. Oh,
it's been a two year old. Yeah, it was amazing.
Oh, yeah. Are you are you going to bring your two year old to Antarctica?
Way We're hoping one day we talked about it being a retirement plan, we were tired of work will work. And then hopefully, maybe she'll want to join us because she has to be 18 to work there. So we'll see that maybe she'll be like, right? Yeah.
She might be tired of hearing our stories and just what to do? Boy,
what advice would you give someone about finding love?
We were in a setting that let us be around each other constantly. And we really got to know each other. No, we became friends. And we were also dating. But I guess I would just say like, if you're gonna, like, the way to fall in love is to really spend time with another person and get to know them. And, and I think also just, we were both people that were looking for adventure, and we were just pursuing something that we thought would make us happy. And so we met like minded people who were into the same things. Yeah, there's
there's a very specific type of person that says, oh, Antarctica, that sounds cool. What about you? Cool. Do you have advice?
You know, I think before you, you can try to find love. You need to work on happiness with yourself. Yeah, you have to be mentally there for yourself before someone else will be able to be there for you. So yeah, just just work on yourself. And you'll find love when you least expect it.
Yep. And Anton. Thank you so very much for doing this interview. This has been an absolute joy. And it's really a pleasure to meet you both. And congratulations on so much happiness in your life.
Thank you for having us.
Sarah, that was such a cute little story. I love this. I love this for them. What is your love to go for today?
Something that Cole said even when it's hard it's worth it? Even if your timeline is compressed, even if you're thinking how could this be possible in such a short time? It's worth it. It's okay.
I think I think it's important to remember sometimes it's right person wrong time or wrong person right time or what you know, whatever you want. You want everything to line up. Sometimes it doesn't. You gotta just roll with those punches,
even when it's hard. It's worth it. Yeah. And we would love to hear your travel stories. Where have you traveled for love? Or where have you traveled with someone you love with? Believe me? We want to travel we can't travel. We want to hear your travel stories and travel vicariously with you? Yes, it lovestruck daily at Frohlich dot media. You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at lovestruck daily. And please leave a review subscribe and spread the word about the show. It helps us grow and it helps us deliver more love to more people around the world. Our researcher is Jesse Epstein. Our editor is Jen Jacobs. We are produced by Abigail steckler and little Scorpion studios and Gillian Davis with executive producer frolic media. This is an iHeart Radio Podcast. We wish you a very safe and happy ever after wherever you are in the world. With that love with you I'm in love with you
