Antarctic Centre - Canterbury

Eventually I became more courageous about my driving abilities in NZ and set off to find the Antarctic Centre on my own. The Centre is the world's aerial gateway to the Antarctic where scientist undergo training and supplies to endure living on the ice capped continent.

I rode in an hagglund, a Swedish all terrain vehicle. It is the official vehicle of Antarctica with the ability to cross 3 meter cracks in the ice, climb 45 degree inclines, and to become a boat! Not the smoothest ride, but it will get you where ever in the world you need to go.

Inside the center, I saw the feeding of cute blue penguins. My favorite was Elvis, though through DNA testing it was determined Elvis was a girl. But a couple of them did have blue shoes. Apparently some of the penguins were getting sore feet from the rocks.














I also survived an 'authentic' antarctic storm. Really . . . .George (the elderly volunteer) locked me in an room, dropped the temperature to negative 20 degrees Celsius , and turned on some high powered fans for 5 minutes. It was COLD. And to humor my new friend, I went down the ice slide and threw snow balls at him. He was lucky there was glass between us.