Leaving at 1:15am on Monday from Kansas City and arriving at 10:30am on Wednesday in Christchurch, New Zealand certainly was a bit odd, especially after not really being on a plane for nearly two days. That’s what happens when you cross the International Date Line. So as I sit here at the Windsor B&B, it is 9am on Thursday, meaning that for those of you back in Kansas, it is 2pm on Wednesday. Kind of strange, I know.
Gumby and I have had a great time once we were able to settle in for a bit and take a walk around the city. We visited the Botanical Gardens, nearly 10,000 acres of winding paths, trees, flowers, and some remote controlled sail boats. I asked them for a ride, but it seemed there was some kind of race going on. We then went next door to the Canterbury Museum to learn a little bit about the history of New Zealand and its culture. They also had two large Antarctic exhibits that we nosed around in to see what we had gotten ourselves into.
Botanical Gardens
Lunch was amazing. Though it did take some looking around for non-American fast food like McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, you get the idea. We came across a nice little sandwich shop, the Tricycle Lane Café, where we had an odd combination of chicken, brie, lettuce, mayo, and cranberry sauce. Oddly inviting and pleasantly delicious!
First Lunch
We’ve only been here a day and it seems that I could write a short story about all that we have done and seen. We also finally got to meet the rest of our research team and have dinner last night at the Tap Room Stonegrill. Our food was brought out, uncooked, on a searing stone. It was then our job to cook it. Kind of cheap if you ask us, we couldn’t even complain if it wasn’t cooked right. It was our fault! Needless to say, the food turned out pretty darn good, and we had some good conversation about the upcoming trip to the ice. Let’s just say from me to you, you’re all in for a treat. The work these guys are doing is incredible. Drilling holes, dropping explosives, and seeing what happens! Should be worth a good ready every couple days or so.
We’re also getting some LIVE events lined up some Gumby and I can chat with you all. We’re pretty excited and will start to get some dates set once we hit the ice and can schmoose with the tech folks down at McMurdo to give us some satellite time. I think that’s about all for now. It’s almost time to go get our extreme cold weather gear (ECW). I’ll be sure to take pictures of that. It could be quite humorous. Talk to you all soon!
Ms. Baker