For our last full day in Christchurch, we decided to go to the New Zealand Antarctic Center. The first thing we did was head to the snack bar.
The lattes sometimes have hearts drawn in the milk foam but many places in New Zealand draw in a fern leaf. It seems appropriate since there are so many different kinds of ferns including impressive giant tree ferns.
To get ready for the Antarctic experience, we visited the Storm Room. The normal temperature in the room is cold enough to have frozen flakes on the floor. That means at least below freezing. Then, they simulated polar winter in the dark. After a few moments, the temperature dropped to below zero fahrenheit! To top it off, the “wind” came up to gale level. The wind chill dropped to -15°F! My once frost bitten bare fingers reacted quickly by becoming painfully very cold. Lesson learned.
After warming up a bit, we went to the Four Dimension theatre. Donning only 3-D glasses, we didn't know what to expect. Video of the front of a boat in the Drake passage going up and down, our seats slammed down as the boat did. Also we got a spay of water in the face from the sea foam! Later, it snowed in the theatre. We made it through.
It was special that they had some captive Little Blue Penguins in simulated burrows with a pond available. This is one of the burrows. These penguins don't see in the red spectrum so they think they're in the dark.
There were a number of penguins in the exterior display. They can swim in a pond and climb around on rocks or to their own burrows.
Bev wanted to see how she would do on a snow cat so we got her into the driver's seat.
The U.S. has an Antarctic program out of New Zealand and Christchurch is the jumping off point. The Antarctic Center is right next to the airport. When we arrived, there was a C-17 parked out by this building. When we left, it was gone. There was no one to ask what their schedule was. It is over 2,000 miles from Christchurch to the nearest point on Antarctica!