10 November 2014 Getting There: Christchurch, New Zealand

Journal Entry

Christchurch, New Zealand

Another milestone achieved! We’ve made it to Christchurch – a.k.a. the ‘City in a Garden’ – our final destination in New Zealand, and it certainly lives up to its name. Just look at all the trees in this photo!

Christchurch, New Zealand, the ‘City in the Garden!’

There are two things we have to do while we’re here in this beautiful city.

One – Collect our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear
Two – Wait for a word that the ‘Ice flight’ is ready to depart.

ECW gear

This journal is brought to you by...

Ms. Annie Pickering’s 5th grade class at Visitation Catholic School from Kewanee, Illinois
Mrs. Lorelei Scatamacchia’s 3rd grade class at Richland Elementary

Crosswind Elementary Students:

Malana Moberly in 3rd grade
Sophia Nadeau in Kindergarten
Bickford Community center in Memphis, TN
Marion Hale Community Center in Memphis, TN

Everything is happening so fast! The team and I were scheduled to meet at the U.S. Antarctic Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) at 9:00 a.m. today to pick up our ECW gear and have out laptops checked. This is a very exciting and important process.

Safety is of the utmost importance! And everyone who travels to Antarctica needs to understand the rules for staying warm, as well as know what to wear and why each piece of clothing is important. Let me share those rules with you.

Rules for staying warm:

There are 4 basic rules.

Rule 1: Stay dry.

Rule 2: Stay warm – insulate by wearing layers.

Rule 3: Protect yourself from the wind.

Rule 4: Fuel your body.

I’ll need to wear a minimum of three layers. Here’s a little bit about each layer.

Base layer – Layer 1

It's a little strange to be talking about ‘underwear,’ but it's necessary, so here goes.

Layer 1 (the base layer) is worn next to the skin and is designed to keep you dry by wicking sweat and moisture away from your body. Base layer clothing is often made of silk, wool or synthetic (man-made) fibers. NO COTTON! NO EXCEPTIONS!

Why’s this?

Cotton should not be worn, because it absorbs sweat and holds moisture near your body.

Base-layer clothing items:

Long underwear top (lightweight)
Long underwear bottom (lightweight)
Sock liners
Glove liners
Hat

Layer 1 – Here I am in my base-layer clothing. Photo courtesy of Alex Eilers.

Mid or insulation layer – Layer 2

Layer 2 (the mid or insulation layer) serve two purposes. It absorbs moisture from the base layer and transports it to the environment though evaporation. This layer also provides extra insulation by trapping and preventing body heat from escaping. Layers can be added or removed depending upon the weather. So, if I get too warm, I can take off a fleece top or pair of fleece pants and set them aside while I’m working. Then, if I start to feel cold, I can put a layer back on.

Mid-layer clothing items:

Fleece tops (1 or more)
Fleece pants (1 or more)
Gloves or mittens (1 or more)
Wool socks (1 or more) OK, to be honest, I’ll probably wear two or three layers of socks!

And now for my insulation-layer clothing – Layer 2. Photo courtesy of Alex Eilers.

Shell (outer) layer – Layer 3

This is the most important layer of clothing I’ll wear. It will protect me from the harsh environment. Its primary purpose is to provide protection from the wind – but it also adds warmth. Snow goggles, or other eye protection, are also worn to shield the eyes from sunlight and light reflecting off snow and ice.

Outer-layer clothing items:

‘Big Red’ parka
Wind pants
Snow goggles
Furback mittens
Thermal boots (rubber ‘bunny’ boots)

With all this clothing on, it’s hard to believe I’ll ever be cold in Antarctica – but right now it sure is warm under all of this.

It's getting warm in here! I'm decked out in my outer-layer clothing – Layer 3. Photo courtesy of Alex Eilers.

Fuel your internal furnace

We can’t forget to fuel ourselves by:

Eating a healthy, balanced diet
Carrying carbohydrate-rich snack foods for energy ‘on the run’
Drink water – lots of it!

You may not have thought about this before…but staying warm requires food. As your body digests food, it generates much needed heat and energy. Carbohydrates are excellent ‘energy foods’ to be eaten during a meal or as a snack when we’re working out on the ice. So, lucky for me, we are encouraged to carry treats (like chocolate bars) tucked away in the pockets of ‘Big Red.’ I just need to make sure these treats can be eaten frozen.

But wait, there’s one more thing. Just as important as a well-balanced meal is staying hydrated! In the dry and windy Antarctic climate, dehydration is a real concern. So, I’ll need to drink plenty of water!

Sightseeing in Christchurch

Now that we have our gear, we plan to take a look around Christchurch and do some sightseeing.

Our first goal: lunch. It is a five mile walk from the hotel to the city center. So, to save time (and because we were so hungry) we hopped on the bus and made it to the Hummingbird Coffee shop. Take a close look at the building. Does it remind you of anything? Perhaps old cargo shipping containers? This entire outdoor mall is made of quaint little shops housed in these old cargo shipping containers. How cute!

The Hummingbird Coffee Shop where we had lunch. Photo credit: Alex Eilers.

The container shops, an ingenious use of old shipping containers. Photo credit: Alex Eilers.

Now, with our bellies full and since it was gorgeous outside, we are off to Hadley Park.

Hadley Park, the largest park in Christchurch has been the site of industrial expositions, tennis championships, open-air concerts, circuses, flower shows and even horse races. Today, we walked past cricket grounds, a golf course and even a pool. Hadley Park is also home to the Canterbury Museum and Christ’s College, but what I want most to see is the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.

Playing cricket in Hadley Park. Photo credit: staticflickr

What an amazing place! There are woodland gardens here, an azalea and magnolia garden, a rose garden, a rock garden, a water garden and daffodil meadow. Those plant names should sound familiar to all my friends back home in Memphis, but the plants here are decidedly more tropical-looking than those that grow in the Mid-south. Take a look!