Shut That Door, There’s Draughts Coming Through
October 26, 2003 9:01 pm General
This weekend is Labour weekend in New Zealand, sharing a public holiday with many countries around the world. Awoke unusually early due to heavy rain hitting the corragated tin roof and decided that I couldn’t possibly waste the day. The International Antarctic Visitors Center is about a 10 minute walk away from the house, so it seemed like the perfect destination on a rainy day. It actually proved to be a pretty interesting visit, having an in depth look at how the bearded scientists survive during the 6 months of darkness winter. Despite the hardships they faced, and the huge swings of morale, I came away feeling only envy. Could I possibly survive such an environment? I couldn’t say, but I know there must be something to bring so many people back year after year. I am sure it is one of the few continents that I will probably not visit in my lifetime and yet seemingly, 1000’s of tourists visit the place every summer. They even have a Lonely Planet guidebook for the place, which amusingly asks all people travelling by ship, to make sure that they have reinforced ice breaks, an emergency helicopter and a few other random checklist items. It’s a different world, for sure.
It seems a good refelection of today that ‘hands on’ museums are more popular than the antiquated trip through dead animals and dusty books. It was pretty cool to be put in a freeze box, to watch how a typical Antarctic storm would feel. With the temperature lowing out at -20 degrees, you could imagine why this lonely place isn’t for everyone. Decided not to take a trip on the Haagelunds, although it was very tempting. Apparently they take you through an assault course, set to prove the worth of the machines in a barren environment like the Antarctic. It didn’t really seem like the real thing, so I left it at that.
After a quick lunch, I headed out towards the beach. Cycling east, I passed many of the suburbs left undiscovered after my week of house hunting. Christchuch gets a lot of winds, although perhaps not as much as Wellington, and today was a struggle of man versus machine [and nature]. When I found the sea, I was a little bit disappointed. I found a beach, empty and void of sunshine with pipes running out to sea at regular intervals. Decided that the sand was compact enough to cycle along the beach for a while. It was tough work, but totally enjoyable. Christchuch is an amazingly flat place, and today I was glad of that fact. After 3 hours on the bike, you legs fade, your will depleted and you casually lose interest.
Laca and family returned from their adventures in Dunedin, and now faces an interesting dilema of where to move. From his stories, Dunedin sounds like a pretty excellent place to visit.
