Gayle and Ruben's Kiwi Blog: International Antarctic Centre, Christchurch

3 February 2018

Before I get to the Antarctic Centre, I will describe the nutty weather we have had. It was scorching hot for days, followed by a cyclone in the South Pacific. The cyclone brought a king tide to Auckland, torrential rain to the west coast of the South Island (Westport and Greymouth were particularly hard-hit), and major flooding to Dunedin and Central Otago. We are so fortunate to be in Waikari! We had a dramatic drop in temperatures and nor'wester winds up to 100 km/hour followed by some rain, but nothing too disruptive.

On the day of the nor'wester I was doing some work inside when I saw something big on the porch out of the corner of my eye. A dog? I try to watch for this because we always have our porch and bedroom doors (there is rarely a typical US "front door" in NZ houses; the Frog is no exception) wide open, and the last thing I need is a random animal inside. Anyhoo. I jumped up (or what passes for jumping in my world these days) and this is what I saw:

This pretty-good-sized male peacock had moved onto the driveway by the time I got the camera sorted. He poked around the park bench for a while then out of my sight. Perhaps he got blown off course in the wind!

On to the Antarctic Centre. I saw this advertised and thought it would be a good foul-weather activity. Saturday started out raining, so I thought this was the day. We are suddenly aware that our time in NZ (this trip!) is coming to an end, so it's time to make these kinds of things happen. There are plenty of things that we are ready to go back to--mostly related to food and bedroom/bathroom--but lots we will sorely miss. We are both apprehensive about what we are going back to. Ruben is not looking forward to the bureaucracy and red tape at the clinic and I don't know how I am going to find an acceptable new self.

Let's try this again. On to the Antarctic Centre. It is located near Christchurch airport and is the departure point for NZ scientific missions to the South Pole. It is a slightly shorter trip to Antarctica from the southernmost point of Chile, so a lot of trips start there, but supply planes to Scott Base the US National Science Foundation base leave from the runway right across the street from the Antarctic Centre.

I really enjoyed this. The first part of the museum is dedicated to Scott Base and the scientists and support staff stationed there for 3-4 months at a time. They had live cameras going and lots of stuff like a replica of the base bulletin board and items from the base chef and culinary staff. Looks at the bunk rooms and laundry facility were interesting, too! Other areas of the museum cover the history of Antarctic exploration and the race to mark the South Pole (it moves, so it has to be remarked every year), current and future scientific projects (and how to deal with climate change and the desire of tourists). They also illustrate a lot about the climate and the plant and animal life on the continent. Fascinating!

One display walks visitors through the 4 seasons on Antarctica. It started snowing, which R is enjoying.

Another display lets visitors experience a polar storm.
They kitted us out in parkas and boots. Ruben also pulled out his gloves.

As the temps dropped, but no wind yet.

The wind in his face. Refreshing?

The "storm" lasted about 5 minutes and got to about 17˚F. I tried to capture the wind speed showing
on the monitor, but the photo was all dark. It was pretty tame compared with the real thing!

Someone collected vials of water from the south pole and north pole
so visitors could stand with one foot one each.

Part of the entry fee is a Haggelund ride. A Haggelund is an extreme all-terrain vehicle on tracks like a tank.

Everyone held on tight.

Everyone!

I tried to capture a few shots along the way. The Centre has an obstacle course for the Haggelunds that goes over tires and logs, crosses gaps, and goes up and down very steep inclines and sharp turns.

The penguins! The Antarctic Centre is a refuge for injured or handicapped Little Blue penguins. These guys are common in the wild along the coast in NZ South Island, but hard to get in photos because during the daytime they are at sea fishing and when the come to shore at night you might see them on a beach, but I couldn't photograph them well without flash, which is forbidden.