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I arrived in New Zealand early in the morning on Sunday, January 23rd, after a long overnight flight from LA. When I arrived in Christchurch I checked into the Windsor Private Hotel, which is a turn of the century home that has been converted into a bed & breakfast, and then I went exploring. It was a beautiful day that I spent walking through the streets of Christchurch - I visited Cathedral Square with it’s large gothic church and stone walkways, I walked through the many parks along the Avon River watching the punts, which are similar to the gondolas in Venice, and the ducks go by, I learned the history of the surrounding region in the Canterbury Museum and I walked through the verdant forests and colorful fields of flowers and grass in the botanical gardens. As I walked, I watched street performers who were in town from all over the world for a festival - I saw comically fighting Vikings, human statues, a guy from Boston balancing on a board rolling on a pipe while juggling bowling pins, and a gymnast in a show of strength and balance, gracefully dancing to Indian music while she was suspended twenty feet in the air. Christchurch is known as the garden city and I can understand why, because all of the homes have very well manicured lawns with colorful flowers everywhere and all of the parks have large trees providing a multitude of shady places to sit on the grass and relax. The City’s architecture is also unique with old stone buildings, many of them churches, and large fountains and statues located throughout the parks. I finished my first day by having dinner with friends at a local Tai restaurant and walking home.

The following morning I went on a mission to find shoelaces for my boots, because I was having problems with the current ones. On the way to the stores I stopped by the Bank of New Zealand to cash my remaining traveler’s checks and after a long lecture by the teller arising from differences between my signature on my passport and the one on the checks, I got my money and was on my way. I walked several blocks before I found the store I was looking for. The store was a large outdoor gear store, but, despite their large selection of boots, they had no laces for sale. After going into four more stores, all of them selling boots like mine, I found a shoe repair store that had the laces I needed and I completed my mission. On my way back to the hotel I met some friends for lunch and then we all proceeded to the CDC (clothing distribution center) at the International Antarctic Center to try on all of our ECW (extreme cold weather) gear. At the CDC, they put us in a large room and give us each three bags containing our clothing issue to try on. All of the old timers were notably unexcited and all of us “Newbies” soon found out why - The room was a large warehouse that was very warm inside and we had to try on all of the issued clothing, which is made to keep you warm in “Extreme Cold Weather”, and exchange anything that didn’t fit with the correct sizes. The whole process took around an hour and a half and then we had the rest of the day to ourselves. At dinner the previous evening we decided to rent a car and drive out to the coast to a seaside village called Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. Six of us loaded into a rented Lotus truck and began our journey to the sea. We passed through rolling green hills and coastal mountains that reminded me of Napa Valley in California and then we reached the sea. Akaroa is a small town on a harbor that is actually an extinct volcanic crater. The water in the harbor is a milky turquoise color, similar to what you would see in a glacial pool in the Canadian Rockies, and is one of the best places in New Zealand to see the rare Hector’s Dolphin and several species of sea birds, including two varieties of penguins. We arrived too late in the day to take a cruise on the harbor and we didn’t see any wildlife, but we walked out to a lighthouse and climbed up a hill to a cliff overlooking the bay to take some pictures. We then sat and ate dinner while we watched the sun fall to the horizon and then we headed back to Christchurch and our hotels.

The next morning we reported to the CDC at eight o’clock, got dressed into our ECW gear and checked in for the long flight to the Ice. There was a lot of speculation about whether or not we would fly because the two C141s, which are very old military planes, that were on the tarmac the previous day were broken, but in the end they flew in a plane that was not broken (or at least was less broken) and the flight was on.

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