Trying out life in Antarctica

Our host in Springfield spent 10 years of her younger life doing working holiday visas all over the world and one of the places was working in the laundry at a military base in Antarctica. She said it was the best job because all your food, accommodation and clothing is provided and there's not like there's any shops or anything so you save all of your wages. Being in the laundry as well she was warm all day and then got days off to go out on the ice with the group exploring. She told us a story about how she was stood on the ice and could see a black dot in the horizon getting bigger towards them. It turned out to be a single file line of emperor penguins belly surfing towards them. Apparently the first ones stood up only inches from them and because they have no natural predators on the ice they had no fear of the people and after checking them out for a while they moved to the side and slid off on their bellies again. Just imagine how amazing that would be! I'm so inspired, more so than Nick, to go to Antarctica. How amazing would that be to say you've been there. Coincidently Christchurch has an Antarctica centre linked to all their research and preparation facilities used for the many missions they have down to the ice. So that's where we went today and it was brilliant. They had the trucks they use out on the ice and a make-shift track to show you how steep they can climb, how they can glide over 2m cracks in the ice and pass over bumpy terrain. We also got dressed in coats and over-shoes and entered a room with real snow to experience the cold and wind of a storm on the ice. It was so cold but those coats were amazing at keeping you warm! Outside we got to meet some adorable huskies who did look rather hot in the sun so we felt a little sorry for them. We saw a 4D film of Antarctica and later a very condensed version of Happy Feet. Nick and I did our best model poses in the lovely 3D glasses provided. At the far end of the centre is an enclosure of rescued, essentially disabled, little blue penguins, one of the species that lives in New Zealand. Turns out only 4 species of penguin actually live in Antartica itself. All the penguins here had some sort of injury and were rescued from the wild. Some had been rehabilitated and released only to turn up onshore malnourished 2 weeks later. The keeper thinks they knew if the kept doing that eventually they'd be bought back to the place where hunting fish is much easier because they aren't alive when you're trying to catch them. There was even one called Nick who had a run in with a shark so now calls the centre his home. We spent time reading the stories of explorers who ventured out onto the ice even a hundred or so years ago. You hold so much admiration for these people willing to just go out and explore unknown land. I do have this desire to spend as many years as possible traveling and working around the world but there's also a huge part of me that wants to be at home starting to build a lives for ourselves with some normality and routine. It's impossible to say what we will do but I'm definitely not ruling Antarctica out just yet.Leggi altro