December 30th, 2005 - New Zealand to the Antarctic

We arrived in Christchurch and after finding a place to stay, we went straight into town. The city center was bustling with activity. Some girls were doing an Irish Dancing Marathon to raise funds for an International Competition, it wasn't really a Marathon, more like Buskering, but we spent a couple of hours in the square and they were going and going! There was a life size Chess Board where everyone stands around and critisizes the players decision to start with a King Pawn Opener. There was also an open air market, where we bought some local Maori souvenirs. We then headed out of town to the International Antarctic Adventure Museum. Christchurch is the hub of most explorations of the Antarctic and it was fascinating learning about the technology required to sustain a few research centers on the frozen continent. We even took part in the Antarctic Storm simulator. They gave us boots and over coats and we waited for the timer to count down before a storm rolled in. Conveniently, they shut off the thermometer during the storm, because obviously no one was prepared enough for the real freezing conditions, but the simulation was pretty damn cold. Then it was back through town, where we stopped at the something Villa - a spectacular historic Victorian house and garden, with a canal through the center of the property, where we saw a punt being pushed through the water ways. A punt is a flat boat similar to a gondolla in Venice. Then it was back into town to meander once again. The scenary in New Zealand and the East Coast of Australia is so beautiful that I filled up all of my memory cards and Laure and I spent some time backing up all of our pictures to CD, that means that I snapped over 700 pictures so far :o . Christchurch is a beautiful town based on alot of historical buildings and gardens. A river runs directly through town with punt rides the length and modern buildings are built around the existing facades of historic ones. All in all, a very cute town center and a surprisingly populated suburb area on the outskirts. Next stop, Fox Glacier.