All the Way to Someplace Else (and back again).: The Livestock Auction and Antarctic Centre

Allister the stock agent talking to us

Today we went to the Antarctic Centre and the Canterbury Livestock Auction. The Canterbury Livestock Auction is held every Tuesday morning. At the auction there were lots and lots and lots of sheep, lots and lots of cattle, 4 big sows and a few piglets for sale. We saw the cattle, sheep and piglets being sold. Farmers and stock agents were buying and selling. A stock agent that my mommy knows named Allister met us at the auction and told the students what was going on. He walked us around the auction and explained things until he had to go and sell some sheep for the farmers he works for.

Sheep for sale in the stockyards

Stock agents selling cattle

I'm all dressed up for Antartica!

After that we went to the Antarctic Centre(that’s how they spell center here in New Zealand). At the Antarctic Centre we saw live penguins, watched a 4-D movie, went through an obstacle course on a Hagglund(which is used for transportation in Antarctica), and experienced an Antarctic summer storm. I even got to dress up as an Antarctic explorer with all of the layers of clothing that they have to wear when they go outside! I liked riding in the Hagglund. We drove into a three meter deep pond in the Hagglund which can stay afloat in water for up to 5 hours. It can also span a gap or crevasse up to 3 meters wide and drives up steep hills easily because it has tracks instead of tires. It was bumpy and very loud to ride in but very fun!

We saw little blue penguins. Little Blue penguins do not actually live in Antarctica but live in New Zealand. All of the penguins at the Antarctic Centre were there because they were injured or had been born with a problem that would not allow them to survive in the wild. We saw a penguin swimming around that only had one leg because it had gotten caught in fishing line. His name was Bagpipes.

The movie we watched took us through Drake’s passage which is some of the roughest sea in the world. During the movie we got sprayed with sea spray and seal snot in our faces. There were also straps that whacked at our legs as if they were seaweed. Our chairs rocked and there were bubbles too.

The US Air Force base for the Antarctic program

Antarctica is the 5^th largest continent. It is also the windiest, coldest, driest and highest place in the world. It was the last to be discovered. The coldest temperature on the planet was measured at Vostok, the Russian Antarctic base and was degrees -128.6 degrees Fahreheit on July 21, 1983. That's really cold! The United State has three permanent bases in Antarctica where they do research: Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Palmer Station and McMurdo Station. The US Air Force flies all of the US, New Zealand and Italian researchers down to Antarctica from Christchurch New Zealand. The US has an Air force base here in Christchurch which is known as the gateway to the Antarctic. The US Air Force program here is called "Operation Deep Freeze".