Visiting a shook up Kiwi

10/10: Had environmental and safety training at Raytheon. Another gorgeous blue sky day with the Rockies shimmering in the distance. I was able to move my flight to LAX from the early flight to the late flight, which meant that I was able to meet my parents!! in DIA as they were were returning from Vermont/NH and say a last goodbye to them.

My flight ended up being delayed for nearly 4 hours, so that we actually arrived into LAX 30 minutes after our flight to Auckland was supposed to take off. Initially this wasn't a worry b/c Quantas was on strike anyways, so it was in doubt whether that flight would even go. And of course the flights from Christchurch to McMurdo hadn't gone out in 3 days due to weather in Antarctica. But it turned out that the flight was going to go, so it looked like we were going to miss the connection. But funny thing when you're flying for the gov't...our travel lady got on the phone and they held up a huge jet for over 30 minutes to wait until my group of 20 got there.

10/11 I missed this day b/c of going over the int'l date line

10/12 landed in Auckland and then transferred onto our flight to Christchurch. It was raining in Aukland, but beautiful weather in Christchurch. On the flight it, it was great to see all the snowcapped peaks. We were picked up by USAP people at the airport and taken to our various hotels. Because of extensive earquake damage, the city center of Christchurch was closed, so our hotels were all a ways out. This upset a lot of people and they just decided to hang out in their rooms or go to restaurants. This didn't phase me though, and as soon as I had dropped off my bags I headed out to figure out the bus system. Someone on our shuttle into the hotel had said, "New Zealand is just a cute country". I would have to say that he was pretty accurate. New Zealand just seems to be very quaint and everything is small and cute and ordered. It was kind of a shock to my system to be travelling through New Zealand. I think I had been travelling in Asia too long, b/c everytime I wanted to ask someone something, I prepared myself to speak in easily understandable broken english and prepared to listen hard to a spattering of english. But ahoy, here I was in a country who spoke English as their native tongue. It almost felt weird to be travelling through New Zealand b/c a.) being white didn't automatically make me recognizable as a tourist b.) they locals spoke my own language and c.) the locals didn't look at me as some rich tourist in which their only goal was to get money from me. So yea, just a strange feeling after being in India.

My goal was to get to Sumner beach, and 3 buses and two transfers later, I made it. I walked along the beach for a little while, but then took a sweet hike up one of the cliffy hills butting out into the ocean. The top of the hills afforded tremendous views of the bay, Christchurch, and the snowcapped peaks beyond. I wasn't able to do the whole hike that I wanted, b/c the earthquake had collapsed part of the trail away, leaving only cliffs.

Back on the beach, I saw a lot of the kiwi’s eating fish and chips. Now, when I was only 6 and my parents took us for 2 months rv camping, with our tiny RV Molly, I vividly remember certain things. B/c of my young age, I don’t remember everything, but a few things I vividly remember: hearing avalanches and glaciers moving down Mt. Cook, sperm whales diving, blue penguins coming ashore at night, geysers, hiking to hidden waterfalls in milford sound, quicksand and sand dunes, giant waterfalls, and sheep farms. Something that has definitely always stayed with me was the taste of fish and chips. I have never found anything remotely close to those greasy fish and chips wrapped in newspapers that I had in NZ. Even when studying abroad in England, I never had anything so good. So I was extremely excited to be buying some fish and chips, right off the beach. And the taste definitely didn’t disappoint!!

10/13
I woke up early to go touring around Christchurch. I always make it a point to have mcdonalds in every country I go to just to see how mcdonalds changes things. It’s funny b/c I never eat at micky d’s in my own country unless it is for a mcsesh (wifi, cleaning, ice, aircon, dollar menu) on camping trips in the southwest. My fave’s have been the mcrice in the Philippines and the McAloo in India. Here they had the Kiwi McBreckie..a mcmuffin with sausage, egg, bacon, a cheese rosti, cheese, and tomato relish. Very tasty, but it’s a good thing Kiwi’s are so active with all that great they get from fish n chips and crowded mcdonalds. After breakfast I burned off the grease by walking entirely around the city center. The city center is completely blocked off and blockaded b/c it is unsafe to go in there due to the extensive earthquake damage in the high rises. There is also extensive earthquake damage even out by my hotel, but since the buildings aren’t tall there, it is deemed safe to move around. It is really quite sobering to see huge buildings that have collapsed or houses that have caved in. As you get closer to the city center, almost every building is abandoned, and it looks like people just abandoned it on an instant and never came back, b/c everything looks as if it would have in the middle of a day except for things being turned over and such. But you’ll see restaurants with some tables turned over, but others still with food and dishes on the table. The churches seemed to have taken it the worst, possibly b/c they are the oldest. But almost all of them have major portions that have crumbled to the ground. It is a shame, b/c they say Christchurch is supposed to be a gorgeous city.

After going around the city center I walked through a large park where people are punting (pushing flat boats through a mild river…think Cambridge), and then I took a walk through the botanical gardens. It was a brief walk. Botanical gardens are another vivid memory from new Zealand and Australia with my parents, but I think this memory is vivid, b/c we went to so many (read too) that I am ok to not visit many more in my life. Bro and I just wanted to play and here were all these flower areas that we had to behave and be proper in.

After my walk through Christchurch it was time to go to the US Antarctic program’s headquarters and check out our extreme weather gear. It took a while to try and all the gear and gather it all together, but afterwards, I definitely felt prepared to face all sorts of cold and harsh weather

There is an Antarctic museum and discovery center nearby that I wanted to check out. Problem is that they were charging 65 bucks. I had heard they give discounts to USAP participants so I decided to go ask and see what I could do. Apparently I was convincing or the lady thought I was good looking or something b/c they let me in for free!! I later found out that everyone else had gotten in at the discount rate of 35 dollars. The Antarctica experience was very cool though. We did a fun ride on something called a Heggland, originally built by Norway for wars. It’s like a snowcat, but can go up a 45 degree slope and also is amphibious. We took it through a lake where it gets submerged ½ way, but doesn’t let water in, and then continues to float and is still propelled by the caterpillar wheels. Pretty cool. Also watched a cool 4D video and a penguin feeding time to go with all the exhibits. They also had a cold and snow room that they kept at 17F and every 10 minutes or so a “storm” would blow in. We sat in there for a couple of storms to try and acclimate to Antarctica.
Looking at all the pictures and seeing the videos and just reading about it, really, REALLY, makes me think I should go back again for another year. In the 2nd year I could get a higher paying job and also one where there would be more travel out to the field camps b/c I will make connections this year. And of course I can’t help but think that if I went a 2nd year, I could save money to do a car camping or mini-rv camping trip for a couple months through gorgeous New Zealand! Hmm…dang, I really have the adventure travel bug bad. So tempting to postpone grad school!!

But WOW, can’t wait to head down to Antarctica tomorrow!! So excited. It’s going to be so absolutely beautiful and stunning and such a crazy experience
Tomorrow we get up at O dark-thirty to catch a C-17 military plane to McMurdo. As long as the weather cooperates that is.

Antarctica here I come!