G'day from Christchurch

Here's what I got for you today!  Welcome to Christchurch New Zealand! I'll spare you the boring details about how I got here but if you want to experience it for yourself, get a halfway comfortable office chair and sit in it for about 22 hours only getting up a few times to walk down a narrow hallway, get your friend to bring you a tv dinner every few hours and well...you get the idea.  I arrived here early afternoon and got checked in to my hotel and got to talk to Andria and the kids for a few minutes.

In the lobby of the Commodore Hotel, they have one of only seven, Ferguson tractors modified for Sir Edmund Hillary to use during expeditions.

Not one to sit idle for too long, I asked to go to the International Antarctic Center.  This is an educational and fun place to learn about the Antarctic mission and the expeditions to explore. It kind of reminded me of a cross between Sea World and a museum. It was a little expensive to go in but It was well worth it. Inside you can see Little Blue penguins, learn about the early exploration, and even go through an Antarctic storm. They actually have a room where the temperature is -8 Celcius, participants can put on a parka and boots and they darken the room and turn the wind up so it gets very cold.  Pretty interesting experience.

Entrance outside

Entrance outside, you can actually ride in one of these!

Entrance inside

Storm room entrance

During the simulated storm

Just prior to the simulated storm approaching

Ice shelter inside the storm room, this gives you a chance to experience just how much of an insulator snow and Ice can be.  I crawled in during the storm just to see the difference.

Flags pre storm

Same flags during the storm

They have the polar ice challenge and I decided to give that a go.  There is water that is chilled to the temperature of the water around Antarctica.  The challenge is to see if you can withstand it for 1 minute on your hand.

I made it a minute and two seconds but I must have been shivering judging by my photo! or maybe I'm just a terrible photographer!

 Little Blue penguins

Temperature yesterday at McMurdo Station

 

Showing the different penguins and their size

 Ice Cave

Explorers camp set up

Once I was done with the tour, I got a ride back to the hotel.  I'm 17 hours ahead of home and so date and time is very confusing.  I crossed both the equator and the international date line, almost where they intersect which I thought was kind of cool but losing an entire day on the way here is still making my brain foggy.  I'll get turned around in a day or two. For now, I'm off to sleep for a bit longer and then go to my appointment to pick up my cold weather gear and do a couple of inspections.  Stay tuned for day two's installment!