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Published: June 26th 2017
Geo: -43.5316, 172.637
What a difference a day makes. Chris and Roisin woke up to glorious sunshine as the Officer of the watch announced the
Sapphire Princess's arrival in Lyttleton, the port that serves Christchurch. Chris and Roisin had arranged to meet Donny and Marie together with an American couple Kaye and Charlie from Kansas. Kaye is a regular quizzer in Donny's team, the Delta Delays.
The shuttle bus from the port of Lyttleton to the centre of Christchurch takes about 25 minutes.
Christchurch was planned as a Church of England settlement. The settlers intended for the settlement to reflect the best qualities (and improve on) the English way of life. They must have succeeded, as Christchurch is now known as
"the most English city outside of England" On first impressions driving through the suburbs of Christchurch, Chris and Roisin commented on how English this part of New Zealand really is. They drove down tree-lined avenues broken by open spaces. As they approached the centre the buildings became strikingly elegant and it's centrepiece being a beautiful gothic style cathedral.
One of the streets Chris happened to spot was 'Madras Street'. He thought ‘
ah! ha! Town planners. Don't ya just love their sense of reasoning?!”
He expected the next street to be called something like Chicken Korma Avenue or Lamb Bhuna freeway. The streets were actually called Barbadoes, Worcester, Hereford, Litchfield and Tuam. These are all named after dioceses around the world. Christchurch suffered a devastating earthquake several months ago. Evidence suggests that the city has made a tremendous recovery. There is still proof of cracks in the roads but all major damage has since been repaired. On the outskirts of Christchurch there were a few buildings supported by scaffolding and the odd chimneystack taped up.
Indeed on the approach in, Chris and Roisin experienced 2 aftershocks that they later learned to have registered 3.6 and 4.2 respectively on the Richter scale. Due to the motion of the vehicle, it was not really noticeable. There have been over 2,000 aftershocks since the big one.
Roisin and Chris together with the others took the free Penguin Express out to the International Antarctic Centre approximately 15 minutes drive from the centre of Christchurch in the vicinity of the airport.
On arrival everyone was just in time to see the penguin's feeding time. What is
it specifically about these birds? Is it the way they walk or their behaviour that makes everybody go
‘Ahh'!' These penguins have all been saved or rescued by the cente. They require a license to carry out their work. As it is illegal to own a penguin as a pet in New Zealand, breeding penguins in captivity is not allowed and the International Antarctic Centre could lose its license if in breech of this regulation. For this reason, when the penguin lays an egg, it is taken from the mother and replaced by a dud. As a penguin has a short-term memory of 2 minutes (a bit like some humans!!) the taking of this egg does not have any psycological effect on the penguin. The penguin will continue to incubate the false egg. When there is no movement within a given period, the penguin will disregard the egg and carry on its merry way. The eggs taken from the female penguins are then sent to a nearby university for research.
The next activity was to experience arctic conditions in the ice chamber. Chris and Roisin were given thick thermal coats and special rubber overshoes and entered the chamber.
As a narration started, the light got dimmer and the cold and wind started. This certainly was a chilling experience. Within 10 seconds Chris's fingers that were holding on to his camera started to tingle. The option was to leave the chamber (the cissy option!) or stick your hands in your pockets (that's what Capt. Scott would have done!)
There were numerous other displays that made this attraction worth seeing. Chris and Roisin paid a few extra bucks to gain a ‘behind the scenes' look at how the penguin sanctuary works. This included seeing the inside of the penguin's nest, a view not open to the general public; a trip down to the filtration plant where the cracks indicate that the floor of this establishment did not escape the earthquake's wrath; and finally the veterinary surgery where they met close up ‘
Turk', a brain damaged penguin who did not yet have a mate and had to be kept separate from the other penguins for the time being. Before returning to the Penguin express, Roisin and Chris took a ride on a snowcat similar to those supplied to the Antarctic Research Teams. The demo took the ‘
cat' up steep inclines, across makeshift crevasses and plunged into 5 feet of water. These tests were demonstrating how robust this vehicle was in extreme conditions.
On returning to Christchurch in the afternoon Chris and Roisin took time to wander around this historic (well, as historic as a town can be in New Zealand!) city, stopping by the statue of Captain Cook (remember, the man who shoved his hands in his pockets if he was cold!!). He stopped in Christchurch twice on the way to his Antarctic explorations. They then crossed over Cathedral Square, moseying on through the barrage of market stalls that line the square before marvelling at the quaint gothic cathedral. They then crossed the River Avon, not as you would think named after the river that flows through Stratford in England but the lesser-known one in Scotland named by one of the original founders of this city. It is possible to go for a punt on the river. Pushed along in a boat by a young gent wearing a boater and holding a stick. This gives England a false reputation as, along with afternoon tea served by waiters in white gloves with a silver tea service, foreigners, especially Americans
think that wherever you go in England, this is what you would expect as the norm. In fact they'd probably expect Norm to be serving the tea as well as punting the boat!!!
That's Christchurch done. The weather has been much more pleasant today. Although the temperature didn't go over 60ºF, the sun has been shining for the most part. Tomorrow is the final port of call in New Zealand – Dunedin. As this is in the far south of South island, only 1300km from Antarctica it's expected to get a bit nippy. Roisin and Chris's visit to the International Antarctic Centre hopefully will not have been in vain as this should hold them in good stead when it comes to acclimatising to the drop in temperature.
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sharon
non-member comment
Arrr, i have picked my chrismas pressie! can you bring me Turk the penguin home please! he is to cute for words xx