Antarctica and Southern Alps

24 October 2012

Yesterday (Tuesday), we went to the International Antarctic Centre.  Fascinating place.  NZ isn't quite the closest country to Antarctica, but it's where the US, Italian, and NZ Antarctic programs are based.  Indeed, the Centre is right across from the airport, and there were 3 buildings we didn't get to see but that were working buildings for the various programs.  We got to see a C17 that apparently had quite a few Italian scientists on it, getting ready for their 6ish hour flight.....apparently 8 flights have already left this season, and they're expecting about 80. At the centre itself we watched penguins being fed, got to "experience" a short storm, ride a vehicle called a Hagglund, see a "4-D" movie, and usual museum stuff.  For the storm we put on boots to keep the "snow" fresh, put on a coat to stay warm, hung out in a room that's -8 degrees C and then stayed there while they increased air flow....smart people went to the "shelter" areas where the fans didn't reach, but we weren't the only fools standing in the center of the room.  Before the storm, Jeff slid down an ice slide....I hope I got a decent picture.  The Hagglund is a 2-car "train" (each car being~10 feet long) with tracks rather than wheels and it can handle inclines, slanted terrain, water, crevasses, and lots of other stuff....we got to ride around on a little course that demonstrated these features.  We speculated about what the 4th dimension would be for the 4D movie....turns out it was "special effects" so we got splashed, air blown on us, bubbles, and probably something else.  Entertaining....once.

So the first news we heard on the radio here was about the US election.  It was an interview of someone with an American accent.  Apparently 7300+ miles away from home isn't far enough to escape it.  But we did have a fun conversation with the shuttle bus driver (on the way to the Antarctic Centre) who was listening to it, and he was pleased to know we'd already voted.

Today we took the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch northwest across the country to Greymouth.  I'm neither a geologist nor a biologist, so consider that as a disclaimer. 

We started close to sea level, and as soon as we got a bit outside of town we reached farmland.  Lots of different types of (plant) windbreaks.  Lots of sheep and cows.  In fact, the sheep reminded me of young children....when they heard the train coming they would run away from it, giving us unobstructed views of their posteriors (the part that reminds me of young kids is the erroneous "I can't see you so you can't see me" assumption). The snow-covered peaks in the distance were the Southern Alps.  We then climbed the foothills which were chaparral-like in their brown-ness and the types of plants which included something that looked a lot like yuccas.  If we believe our tourist info, the forests we saw were beech.As we descended onto the West Coast, it turned greener, almost a Yamhill county level of lushness (sorry, non-northwesterners).  I'm sure I've missed some of the many ecosystems we saw and rode through, even some that we were stopped at while waiting for coal trains to pass (interesting random and totally useless factoid: the coal trains must not have more than 30 "wagons").

This being spring, there were some wildflowers in bloom....I noticed at least 2 and likely 3 different kinds, but since all of the blooms were various shades of yellow it wasn't entirely clear how many types there were.  We traveled along various rivers which ranged in color from milky green to grey to lapis blue and probably other shades we didn't notice.  And there were some very interesting cows....they were solid brown or solid black from their shoulders forward (head, front legs) and from their hips backward (tail, rump, hind legs), but they were white around the middle. 

Most of the peaks looked quite worn (ie, more Appalachian than Sierra/Cascadian), though a few were quite craggy.  Jeff suggests that NZ is certainly in a volcanic zone, and that we know the fiords in the south are glacial [yes, they spell fjord funny here], but the mountains felt Rocky Mountain aged.  He noted that the rock strata close to Greymouth were very not horizontal, which might indicate earthquake history.  Indeed, the tour guide mentioned a place where we crossed intersection of tectonic plates. So concludes our geologic speculation.

Forgot to mention the bed instructions in our hotel.  It's a laminated card titled "how to sleep in our beds."  It says "We want everyone to have a good sleep.  (Already know about this style of bed? - put this in the bedside cabinet drawer.)
1. Pull Top Cover back
2. Photo 1 - Pull back the top Sheet [Photo 1 identifies the Bottom Sheet, Top Sheet, and Top Cover of a bed that's been made]
3. Photo 2 - Sleep between the sheets [Photo 2 only identifies the Bottom Sheet and Top Sheet, with the top sheet folded diagonally to make it easy to get into bed]
Have a great sleep!"
I think we can confidently say that we followed instructions, except the part about putting the instructions in the bedside cabinet drawer.

Tomorrow we head off to Tekapo, a resort lake.  We may not be able to write much for the next few days between Internet and socializing (or should I fit in with the locals and write "socialising" instead?).