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.