Antarctic Adventures

Aotearoa is very close to Antarctica.

The U.S. Base across the street from the Centre

The International Antarctic Center is based in Christchurch, New Zealand and is exactly what it sounds like.  Among other things, it is the cause of Christchurch being called the gateway to the Antarctic as it is where anyone headed to "the ice" receives all their gear and things.  It is also the home of the US Air Forces' Antarctic program "Operation Deep Freeze".  The US Air Force flies all of the American, Kiwi, and Italian explorers to Antarctica.

The United States operates three permanent research bases in Antarctica; Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (located at the geographic south pole), Palmer Station (Anvers Island), and McMurdo Station(Ross Island).  At McMurdo, the United States researchers closest neighbors are the Kiwis at Scott Base who are only 3 kilometers away.  Apparently they get together and socialize quite often!

Antarctica is the 5th largest and highest continent in the world and contains 95% of the worlds' ice.  The reason that Antarctica is so high is because of the 5 km ice layer on top of everything except for the highest mountain ranges.  Quite a bit of Antarctica is below sea level so if the ice was scraped off, the size of the continent would be would be decreased noticeably.  Antarctica gets a lot of snow right?  Well, I have must say that all of you who thought that are...wrong!  Antarctica only averages about 5 cm (2 in) of snowfall a year.  The misconception is because of the buildup of that snow over time.  The packing of the snow is also what causes the amount of ice that the continent has

The Antarctic Center has many things to see and do.  We saw a 4-D movie about riding a ship through Drakes Passage, the roughest sea in the world, and exploring the Antarctic coastline.  We also visited the snow and ice storm room, which when we went in was 0 Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) but was drastically decreased when the temperature dropped and the wind came up, bringing the temperature below 0 Fahrenheit.  And I was wearing shorts!

Getting ready for our Hagglund ride

One of my favorite things to do at the Center is the Hagglund rides.  Hagglunds are the main means of transportation in Antarctica.  They can cross 3 foot gaps and "swim" with the treads that they have instead of wheels.  Hagglunds can can comfortably climb and go around very steep inclines.

What a Hagglund looks like from the outside

The crevasse we cross

 

One of the Little Blue penguins

At the Center, we saw adopted Little Blue Penguins.  The Center takes them in only if they are injured and cannot survive in the wild but they are not allowed to breed them.  Some of the Little Blues were missing limbs such as legs.  One of them had a wing that was paralyzed.  It had to learn how to swim moving only one wing.  The Center could only house 30 penguins at a time.  If 2 mated, an employee would take the egg, switch it with a plastic one, and dispose of the real one.  If a penguin was only temporarily injured, once it was well, the Center would release it back into the wild.

After the Antarctic Center, we went back to Lincoln and checked in for the night.

Stock, Stock, Everywhere

Since NZ has so many animals, it is inevitable there will auctions.  Before we went to the Antarctic Center, we visited the Canterbury Livestock Auction, which is held every Tuesday.

Sheep waiting to be sold

When we visited the auction, we saw and heard sheep and cattle being sold.  The sheep were sold by stock agents walking around on top of the pens but the cattle were sold by an auctioneer in a stock arena.  Stock agents represent their clients who are buying and selling animals at the auction so they don't have to come themselves.  Each stock agent represents about 100 farmers.  Farmers tell their stock agents what types of animals to buy for them and what they are willing to spend.  Stock agents also help to weigh and group the animals their clients are selling. 

We saw our friend Fred Fowler who spoke to the group about the auction and a stock agents job.  Fred is the longest working stock agent on the South Island and has worked as a stock agent

or over 50 years.

Fred Fowler has worked as a stock agent for over 50 years and always speaks to our group

 Thousands of sheep are sold here each week. Overall, it very loud but with few people.You can learn more about the auction in last years post.

Cattle in the sale ring

Auctioneers selling cattle

 

 

Visit to a Volcanic Harbour

Fun fact; New Zealand is on top of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and is mainly formed as a result of volcanic activity.  Akaroa is a perfect example of a volcanic harbor.

Making my mom nervous

Miranda and I

Claire and Miranda

Great views

The drive to Akaroa (Aka: roa) (pun intended) from Peters' farm was about an hour on a bus through cliffs, hills, and mountains, so it was intimidating even for people like me, who aren't afraid of heights. One student even asked if there was such a thing as too scenic!



Our bus climbed all the way to the top

You can see where the sea broke through the wall of the volcano many years ago

Akaroa Harbor was formed as a result of a caldera, or collapsed volcanic crater.  The sea broke through and filled the crater.  It is about 1 and 1/2 km long.  Akaroa is a relatively small town and the only French settlement in New Zealand.


The harbor

Cruise ships sometimes come into Akaroa now.  Luckily none were here our day!

Some of the cute old cottage in town

Once we got to Akaroa, we had lunch, and set off to explore town.  We went shopping and my sister and I played on a playground.  By this time we were starting to get hungry and so we set off for...
The NZ famous Akaroa Fish and Chips Shop.  This shop made the New Zealand Top Ten fish and chips shops. After we ate our fish and chips, it was time to go back to Lincoln and check in for the night.


We love fish and chips!

They Just Gotta Work

Peter Kidd National Champion Dog Trialer

Dogs can be amazing animals.  When we visited Peter and Maree Kidd on Saturday on our way to Akaroa, we saw such dogs.

When we got off the bus, Peter was waiting for us. He took us over to his dog boxes and spoke to us briefly, explaining the difference between a heading or eye dog and a huntaway.  Then Peter let his dogs out of their boxes and showed us all 5 of his dogs, one of which is a national herding champion.  All of his dogs were lean and sleek, no fat dogs here!

After showing us the dogs and explaining a little about their training, Peter took one of the heading dogs to herd sheep down the driveway and into the open.  It was amazing how one dog, without barking or physical contact could keep the sheep moving. 


Moving the sheep down the driveway

The differences between a heading dog and a huntaway are that huntaways are known for their large, muscular builds and loud barks, whereas heading dogs, also known as eye dogs, are known for their smaller, streamlined build, quietness, and stoic stare which allows them to herd the sheep into a tight mob. Huntaways and eye dogs are bred based on their function or job, not their appearance so they can look different but eye dogs look somewhat like Border Collies and Huntaways look a bit like shepherd mixes.

Then Peter let 4 sheep out and had the same dog herd them up the hill. 


Letting a small group out to send them up the hill

Pip eyeing the sheep

He rotated the dogs, sending a fresh one up the hill to move the sheep away showing us how each dog responds to a different whistle.  During this he moved the sheep all around on the hill.  Eventually Peter sent a huntaway up the hill and he rounded them up by moving them with his loud bark.  Tuff brought the sheep back down and put them back in the pen while Peter explained what the different whistle commands meant.



Working the hill. 

Chief then came for a visit with the group.  Chief was the national herding dog champion two years ago and won first place out of 287 runs.  He is now 11 years old and has some arthritis in one of his front legs but he still likes to get out and work.  We got our picture taken with Chief. 


Getting to meet Chief was pretty cool

You can read more about their big national win here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/sheep/10125699/Better-late-than-never-for-new-national-champion

Mom and Aunt Lesa hadn't visited the Kidd's since 2008 so they were glad to be back and hear about Peter and Chief's success. Maree handed out some dog whistles for student to try to make work, people took pictures and said their goodbyes and then it was back on the bus for Akaroa.


Tuff the Huntaway moving the sheep at the top of the hill with his loud bark

Tuff close up



Hunch and Chief waiting



Peter's dogs- 2 eye or heading dogs and two huntaways

First Farm Visits

Aotearoa grows and exports lots of agricultural products to the rest of the world.

On our first farm visit this week, we went to visit Gumshade Farm, a sheep and crop farm owned by a man  named Hamish Reed.  My mom and Aunt Lesa have been visiting Hamish since they came to New Zealand for the first time in 1999.  That was before my mom was married and before I was even born!


Farmer Hamish Reid who owns Gumshade Farm

When we got off the bus, Hamish was waiting for us.  He told us about the history of the farm which I thought was pretty interesting. The farm is 1300 acres total and Hamish has a flock of 2,000 ewes(female sheep) and 600 replacements (young ewes).  He was one of the first farmers around his area to use center pivot irrigation, like what we have in Delaware, which has allowed him to raise crops other than just sheep and a few fat cattle.

Miranda checking out some of the 1000 sheep that were in this field

After that, he took us out to see....carrots!  NZ grows about half of the carrot seeds for the world.   If you plant carrots in your garden, you just might be planting carrot seed from South Pacific Seeds.


Carrots growing for seed out in the field

Hamish spends about $15,000 annually to rent (or hire as they say here) bees to pollinate the carrots that he raises for seed.  They never harvest the carrots to eat because they have to grow long enough to produce seeds.  This means that the carrots are way too old, big, and knarly to eat. As Hamish was going "Blah, blah, blah, yattah, yattah yattah, womp, womp, womp", Errol(a friend, more about him later) took me to meet Hamish's son.



James and I got to hang out and talk

James was 8 years old, but had his own dirt bike that he used to get around the farm.  He I talked for a bit, then I challenged him to a race.  James told me that he played cricket, tennis, and rugby. I told him how I am terrible at cricket and tennis and am ok at rugby.  Afterwards, James showed me his working dog, Sway.  He let her out but had to hold her to keep her from jumping on me.  We then hung out and talked until it was time to leave.


James waving goodbye to me

After Hamish's we went to the Lincoln University Dairy Farm which is used to demonstrate to farmers the best way to manage dairy cattle.  It is one of the top producing grass based dairy farms in New Zealand. It  is 160 hectares, has been operating for 14 years and hosted over 40,000 visitors.  Peter Hancox the farm manager hosted us.  He showed us a bunch of charts and so I layed down and concentrated on not getting sunburned.  Next we went to the milking parlor which is the only building on the farm and watched the milking process.  The use a 50 cow carousel which is a large wheel that rotates slowly and the cows get on and off on their own.  One man can milk 560 cows in 2 hours!

After the dairy farm we visited one of Lincoln University's Sheep research units but I stayed on the bus because the southerlies (cold winds out of the south) were getting pretty strong and it was chilly.  It was a long day and I was tired so it felt really good to get in my bed that night.

Return to Aotearoa

Sometimes going all the way to someplace else and back again can take a lot of travel time.  40 hours in my case. 

I got up at 3:00 a.m. on January 2, and took about a half an hour getting ready to leave for Philadelphia airport.  Then we were off!  And then we forgot my sister's medicine.  We spent about twenty minutes going back to retrieve it.  Now, by this time, I was really starting to get bored of sitting in the car.  We finally got to the airport, where we said farewell to my dad who could not come on this trip.

We got on our first flight, a 4 hour United flight to Houston, Texas.  There we had a 2 hour layover during which the group started to get to know each other  I actually remembered some of the names that I learned! Then we got on our second flight, another 4 hour United flight, this time to Los Angeles, California.  There we had another layover, this time it lasted 7 hours. I played some of the games that I had brought with me such as Tenzi, with the students. After what felt like the shortest 7 hours of my life, we caught a glimpse of our Air New Zealand plane, a massive Boeing 777-300.

This is the type of aircraft we flew over the Pacific on

 

On that aircraft, we would have a flight that would seem forever but really last 12 hours (still a long time).  After dinner on the plane, I watched a movie and fell sound asleep.

When my mom woke me up, it was almost time for breakfast. Then I played a few games, and watched another movie that was pretty cool.  By that time we were almost to Auckland so I eyeballed the digital map in front of me, being pretty excited about getting back to New Zealand.  When we got to Auckland, we had a 4 hour layover during which we switched terminals after going through customs.  The customs agent said, "Welcome back!" as she stamped my passport.
 
Finally, we got on my favorite flight, a  1.5 hour flight from the North Island to the South Island (or the Mainland as South Islanders like to say) over the Cook Strait and following the Southern Alps to the city of Christchurch.  I love this flight because of how blue the water is.  When we landed in Christchurch, some old friends were there to meet us along with our bus driver Robbie. Robbie has been driving University of Delaware students around New Zealand for many years.

Robbie took us on a tour of Lincoln, the little town where we are staying, after which we stopped and had lunch. Then we got back on the bus and Robbie gave us another tour, this time of the lookout over Christchurch and the Canterbury Plains and of Lyttleton, a port town that is on the other side of the Port Hills from Christchurch.  Afterwards, we all went shopping, unpacked bags, and turned in for the night.

Welcome to my someplace else, Aotearoa! 

Me at the Sign of the Takahe overlooking the city of Christchurch



Our first group picture at the Sign of the Takahe overlooking the Canterbury Plains, our home for the next month.

Hi everyone.  The blog is up and running again.  We leave home in about 6 hours.  I will write my first post from New Zealand as soon as I get a chance.  Happy New Year!