Christchurch: The Gateway to Antarctica
Following in the footsteps outlined in Shackleton’s Forgotten Expedition, Lynn takes the controls as we head north along McMurdo Sound toward our Winter Quarters below Mount Erebus.
Five weeks and 5000 kilometers later, the final countdown for our time in New Zealand has finally arrived. We would have liked to stay longer but, due to a ticketing problem in our planned departure from Sidney Australia, we had to take a defined departure date. To make a change at this late date would have been far to expensive.
Our last few days are spent traveling up the East Coast from Invercargill through Dunedin where we visit the Lloyd family (Kim, the oldest daughter of our friends, David and Gill, and Kim’s husband Hywel and their two children – pictured in Rotorua story). After a short, but wonderful visit, we again head north along the coast toward Christchurch, making several stops along the way.
In scanning the slideshow you will note a group of amazing rocks, the Moeraki Boulders that look like giant cannonballs. Located at Koekohe Beach along a short stretch of the Otago coast, these boulders were formed millions of years ago in the Pleistocene era and only after millions of years of erosion have they made a surface appearance. Each decade more rocks have become exposed and it appears this is the only area in the world where these unique rocks can be found.
A few hours later we arrive in Christchurch the “Gateway to Antarctica”. The city is also, coincidently, billed as the “Garden City” and “The Most English City in New Zealand”. After a few hours driving around we cannot believe how much the city looks and feels like our home city of
Victoria. Having a population of 350,000, the same as Victoria, it is only after doing a bit more exploring the differences to Victoria become evident.
Christchurch has obviously been more successful in preserving their history as refurbished heritage buildings dot the city. Victoria, on the other hand, has managed to demolish much of our history as developers gobbled up prime land then tore down the old and put up newer, far less interesting buildings.
While the weather during our stay was overcast with periods of rain, this was a plus as it accented the second major difference in Christchurch – the amount of tropical vegetation and flowers. In the soft rain, the trees, shrubs and flowers that are now bursting into bud and bloom as we approached the Christmas season, leaves the Garden City of Victoria a fair distance behind. There is one area in which Victoria overshadows Christchurch and that is in having a harbour that spills to the very core.
After completing several hours touring, we had yet to visit the International Antarctic Centre. While we would have very much liked to have flown over that hidden, isolated continent whose land surface covers an area twice the size of Australia and is 98% covered in ice, flights are no longer available since a tragic crash several years back. The best we could do was enter the Cold Weather Chamber in order to experience what it would be like to actually visit the continent. Given that we have both experienced the dreadful cold that can cover the Canadian prairies in the winter, hanging around at -40 (both Celsius and Fahrenheit) in a large freezer, was not unknown. The difference, the Antarctic scenes in the chamber are very realistic.
After an hour of playing around in the ice, snow and 50 mph winds driven by oversized fans, we head back to our hotel for one final night. Early the next morning we are in an airport terminal that, once the renovations are complete, will look very much like the new terminal in Victoria. After short stopovers in Sidney, Los Angeles and Vancouver, we will again soon be visiting our the kids and our home in Victoria.
Harold
In the air heading home.
2009
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