New Zealand

Saturday June 10th – We got up early this morning and with Laura acting as our chauffer, headed for the airport to begin the next stage of our adventure. It was a three hour flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. Because it was a clear day, the views as we flew in were spectacular. Once off the plane we gathered a bunch of brochures at the ever handy information booth and arranged for our rental cars.
The first thing that we had planned to see happened to be very close to the airport which made things simple. The International Antarctic Centre is an educational centre about… you guessed it, the Antarctic! It’s a pretty good center and explains all about the continent (the 5th largest) and how over 40 countries have signed a treaty declaring that the continent will remain an area for research only (no military installations). The centre explains about much of the ongoing research, some on marine life, some on geology, some on meteorology. They also had a simulation room complete with snow. Each person put on rubber overshoes (just to keep the snow clean) and a heavy parka. Then they simulated a "summer storm". Man was it COLD! The wind was howling and the temperature plummeted to – 17 degrees Fahrenheit. Just a few minutes were enough for me!
Afterwards we located our hostel and checked in. Grant & I have never tried hostels before but it’s certainly a less expensive way to travel and you meet more people who can share travel tips. The hostel was nice and we grabbed some take away food and spread out all our travel brochures on the kitchen table to make some decisions for the coming days.