International Antarctic Centre

Apr 16th. After picking up our rental car we head off to the International Antarctic Centre. This is widely acclaimed as the no.1 tourist attraction in NZ. We are greeted by a person in a big fluffy penguin suit so this bodes well for the visit. We enter the centre and head in to the storm centre which is basically a room held at -5 degrees C and every so often they create a storm with winds up to 45 kph which take the temperature down to -18 C. There is snow on the floor so we don our rubber shoes and jackets and await the storm. It is pretty good and quite cold on your face. In Antarctica the wind can get up to 200 kph and -70 C. We then head off to see some Little Blue Penguins swim around and being fed which is cool and then we go on the Haggerland ride which is an army style tracked vehicle that is used in the Antarctic. We whizz over bumps, slopes and generally get thrown about the place inside the van before 'swimming' through a 3 metre deep pool - the water gets close to the windows - all in all really good fun and worth a visit. Christchurch is the last port of call for trips to the Antarctic - this centre has a serious side and houses all equipment that scientists take down and also the passenger terminal.