We were greeted to find sunshine and temperatures in the 80's this morning here in New Zealand. Things will be different tomorrow.
What a beautiful, South Pacific kind of day. Temperatures touching 90 (32 celsius). Slight, humid breeze and the smell of flowers and trees wherever you go in this city of Christchurch, New Zealand.
Here is one of the many buildings which still shows damage from the devastating earthquake in 2011.
Historic Christchurch.
This is the sign at the entrance to a museum teaching about the earthquake.
In some places, whole city blocks had been fenced off.
The Canterbury Museum is a must see. It also has a great Antarctic display.
This flightless bird is called a Moa. It is now extinct. It was endemic (only found here) to New Zealand.
Tom Powers, Byron Adams, and myself in the Antarctic display of the museum.
Robert Falcon Scott, Antarctic explorer. His entire team perished after reaching the South Pole in 1912. This statue was toppled by the earthquake and broke in half. It was repaired and standing tall.
Lunch with the team. Listening to these scientists during lunch is like one TED Talk after another. The best education I have ever received. Oh yeah, the fish and chips were also the best!
My brief stay here in Christchurch has been beautiful. It is sad to see the damage, and hear of the lives lost in the quake, but there are so many great things to see and do here. There is a beautiful botanical garden that we walked through. The city is very clean and welcoming to us visitors. The Kiwis here treat us so nice. Tomorrow morning, if the weather holds, we will be flying to the ice. My next journal will tell of the preparations made at the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center). We had some great training and received our ECW (Extreme Cold Weather gear). Stay tuned for tomorrow's journal where hopefully, I will share some of my first glimpses of what I have been anticipating for years...standing on the highest, windiest, driest, coldest, least populated continent of them all...Antarctica!
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