We had a reasonably early start this morning, because at 8.15 we were being picked up to go to the Antarctic Centre. This is a visitor attraction which is based in Christchurch near the airport, because many Antarctic expeditions are organised in Christchurch and leave from Christchurch airport. As you go into the centre, you can see the next plane that is flying out there being loaded - apparently, one went last night and they are trying to get the next flight ready for tonight, if the weather holds.
First we went into what is described as the Scott Base, where there is a replica of part of Scott's hut at one end and the other end represents the modern Scott-Amundsen Base, with a modern hut, a Snow Cat and fuel barrels and various other bits of equipment. During 7 minutes, there is a sound and light show which takes you through the seasons. There is also plenty of information around to read as well.
The next room is called the 'Snow and Ice Experience' and you are given overshoes and a big jacket so you can go into a very cold place. The place is cold to start with and full of snow and ice already, not to mention an igloo of sorts
Once everybody is inside, they start lowering the temperature and blowing wind at you and shortly the temperature is absolutely freezing, the noise is amazing and the wind makes it hard to stand. It was at this point that Paul felt he had had enough and wanted to go, but shortly the wind dies down and the temperature gets a bit warmer, and you can give the jacket and overshoes back and go out.
In our case, it was to the Hagglund ride, where you get into the sort of vehicle that people have to use when being taken around out there.
There is a specially constructed scary track so you can experience the vehicle going up and down very steeply indeed - a bit like a roller coaster. There's another hill you go round at an angle to show the vehicle is designed to operate at a steep sideways angle without toppling over. Then you go over a crevasse - because it has tracks, it can span a crevasse of one and half metres. Then you go through a pond which is between 3 and 4 metres deep; fortunately, the vehicle turns into a boat, driven by its caterpillar tracks. Then you are allowed to get out, thankful that you only had about 10 minutes, rather than 5 hours which is what you can easily get if you have to travel somewhere in the thing!
We looked at a few other things until it was time for the penguin feeding. There are a number of Little Penguins there, all disabled in some way and rescued because they are unable to live in the wild. Some have injured feet or flippers (one has only 1 leg), some are partly or wholly blind, one has brain damage after a blow on the head from a boat. Little penguins are usually nocturnal, but these ones get fed twice a day, so they wake up to eat.
Actually, I think they find the people quite interesting, so a couple of them who had nothing to do (many are sitting on eggs) got into the water and swam to keep cool and watch the people photographing them through the glass wall that separates their swimming pool from the viewing public.
We went to watch a couple of 4D films, and got a little wet. We spent a long time in the Antarctic Gallery, which was full of information, and had a polar camp set up.
Apparently, out in the field scientists still use the same type of polar tents that were used 100 years ago, and the sledges haven't changed either. You drag them with a skidoo though. You could see the rations they take with them, and the stove - that hasn't changed much either, and was much like the one my father used to take on picnics when I was a child.
We spent 5 hours there, somehow or other, then we discovered that the Centre operated a free bus between there and the city, so we went into Christchurch.
The city centre hardly exists any more, many of the buildings are fenced off because they are unsafe, and there are hardly any shops open. We had hoped for a view of the Cathedral, but it was impossible to get near it, the streets were all closed. The historic buildings have suffered as well as more modern ones. No wonder we couldn't find a hotel near the city centre, there isn't really a city centre any more. Even shops in buildings that appear to be undamaged are not open, and their insides seem to be wrecked.
The bus driver explained to us that a real effort is being made to re-open the city centre, so shipping containers have been set up in cleared areas and shops have moved into those.
We noticed that it was mostly big name stores though - heaven knows what is happening to small businesses. I saw a notice on what had been a smart restaurant, saying they were operating a take away business from a caravan, and giving the address.
We found ourselves getting quite depressed at the state of the place and thinking how so many people would manage, and how many years it would take to sort it all out, so we caught a bus back to jail.
This is jail from the side view - we showed this to somebody we met on the train and she said 'Goodness, it looks just like a real jail!' That's because it really was a women's prison for a while.
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