Card postmarked from the South Pole

[Wynnie]

I’m so happy. Just in time for Christmas, while Santa is busy making the last few toys up at the North Pole, some of his distant cousin elves in the South Pole Post Office (US APO) sent me a happy surprise…

I had gone to my first meetup in March of 2022 and a very nice fellow Postcrosser showed me how to go about sending a card to the South Pole to get it postmarked from there and sent back. He was also very generous and shared with me a card he had designed for doing this.

Well, I sent it off on Mar 29, 2022. As more than a year went by, I sort of thought, “Well, it was a long shot. Folks are just getting back some post-pandemic normalcy, so who know if it ever made it there.”
But 623 days later, it came:

Thanks, DJ, for the great tip!

[TwasBrillig]

What a lovely card, stamps and what a story! Thanks for sharing every bit of it

[Hemang]

I had also sent mail to south pole PO long ago, let’s see when it reaches me

[Robin67]

Too cool and a beautiful card!

[Skye864]

I am bit curious about how to send a return card to the south pole myself - would you share the information?

[Wynnie]

Sure. Basically, you have to send the postcard with postage and YOUR address already on it, inside an envelope with the postage and address to get it to the United States “APO” (a US run post office that is outside the 50 states).

Here are the instructions as they were given to me:

As my friend told me, it really did take a long time. Best luck!!!

[TurtlePoint]

I took part in this fundraiser they were doing

Your postcard’s journey

The link above has some good information and some great pictures. And, as promised, their card arrived yesterday (15/12/23)

[Skye864]

Great - Thank You! Does the Postcrosser sell the Antarctica cards? I really like his design and also looked up the site about the flag.

[Paleoman80]

What postage do you need? Just a regular US global rates or a special stamp plus US postage?

[Wynnie]

I’m not sure if he sells them. He got my address when we met at a meeting and sent me the card along with the instructions. It was super nice of him. I think if I were to try for another one, I might find a card by Lantern Press or Postcard Fair.

I sent him a message thanking him when my card came back. But as it was almost 2 years later, I don’t know if he’s still involved. If he responds, I’ll ask him if it’s ok to tag him here (if he is still doing the project).

[Wynnie]

Because the APO is technically treated as a US address, the postage back is the regular postcard postage for the US. For the small envelope sent to Antarctica with the return card inside, you could have the person at the counter weigh it to see how much. I think I only added an additional ounce stamp, but it’s been a while. [for US to US, of course; if someone is doing this from another country than USA, then they would have to put the international postage each way, I presume]

[Wynnie]

Thanks, @TurtlePoint, for posting, too. Now that I have a card from the US APO, I was thinking of trying the British PO that was the subject of a recent PC Blog. The card is so nice! Now I’m for sure gonna do this next!

[BeeJoyful]

So awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[Skye864]

Thank you for doing that. I found an Antarctica card on Zazzle, but I‘m still interested in his card in case he responds.

[simmo11]

If I wanted to do this from the UK would a US Forever Stamp work for the return from Antarctica ?

[RyanR]

I don’t see why not, as the USPS will be dealing with the postcard?

[Wynnie]

Agree. I’m not the ultimate authority on it, but I have experience with getting mail through the APO system as well as sending, and postage to/from an APO was treated like any other USA address.