Hey! Guess where we are !!! ?? I could NOT believe it myself. Last night I went to bed fully anticipating arriving in Christchurch, NZ. Like I told you, we are headed South .... Well, Imagine my surprise when I awoke and threw open the curtains! ANTARCTICA! The Captain must have gone full speed ahead last night! What a trip THIS has been! Anyway here are some pictures of our unbelievable day!
Ha!
OK, I will fess up. Today we had a tour of the International Antarctic Centre. Christchurch is the gateway to Antarctica. It is a mere 12 hour direct flight from here. New Zealand, the US and Italy are working here in the Antarctic program. The Centre has you believing you are actually there. We donned jackets and has a snow and storm experience in a special polar room. As we walked on real snow and ice, they turned the temperature down to sub zero, added then dimmed special effect lighting, and turned on blizard audio. While we stood in this room surrounded by snoow and ice the wind whipped around giving you a sensation of being in an actual blizzard with temperatures dropping like bricks. BRRRRR! I, the eternal ice lover, departed the storm early as it was way too cold for me. Even my glasses were frosted over.
We then climbed into a Hagglund, (all terrain vehicle) fastened our seat belts, and hung on to some straps for a fast paced, up and down the hills, and into a huge mud puddle, ride to simulate what it would be like to actually be in one of these in Antarctica. This is the only place in the world where you can experience a ride in one of these. It felt like we were on a roller coaster while being in a blender at high speed. No thanks... I do not want to do this again.
We met some adorable little blue penguins who are a part of their Seabird Conservation program. It was their lunch time when we arrived.
Our remaining time in Christchurch was getting a first hand view of the city. Last September Christchurch had a massive 7.0 earthquake. We were told it was as bad as the one in Haiti. The difference here is that building codes are so tough that the damage was not as massive. There is still evidence of recovery with buildings hiding behind scaffolding. We passed by a 911 Memorial from the Twin Towers in NY. Last year the NY firefighters brought a piece of the actual steel beams from NY as a gift to this city. It is a beautiful city. I could easily live here . Christchurch, a very English city, is known as the Garden City. With parks filled with willow trees and abundant flowers, the Avon river flowing through it, and home proud people having flowers everywhere in their yards, it is easy to see how people identify it easily with these labels..
No comments:
Post a Comment