It's The Journey...

           I am officially here. The wait is over. It took almost a week of travel and training to make it this far, but it's just a small price to pay.
           My stay in Christchurch was great! The currency exchange was almost spot on to the US dollar so there was no headache of "How much am I really spending on dinner?" The only thing that really needed getting used to was the reversed street traffic. This did not just mean the cars. The people naturally walked on the other side of a sidewalk making it feel at first that everyone kept running into me. Turns out I was just going against traffic. Another opposite I've been waiting my whole life to see is the reversed direction of water as it goes down a drain, or the Coriolis Effect. To my annoyance the toilets there just go down instead of around because of water conservation. I had to wait till I could fill up my bathroom sink to watch and at that point I realized that even if I saw the water going an opposite way, I couldn't remember for the life of me what direction water drains back home. I guess it's just not one of those things you notice unless you look for it.
           The briefing we had for Christchurch included emergency contacts and loads of information pertaining to what to do in the case of an earthquake. At first this seemed a little overkill, but when they mentioned that the city had felt a 5.5 a week earlier it brought it all home. Christchurch had been devastated by a huge earthquake last year. The entire downtown area had been wiped out. When we arrived a few of us went for a walk towards the down town area and the entire city had been fenced off. It was eerie looking at large convention centers and tall modern buildings on the main road for as far as I could see, and yet there was no cars, people, or even noise coming from the center. There were even billboards and posters with "Coming in March!" still up. It was like the whole downtown area had been at a stand still for a year.
             Aside from the crumbling city center Christchurch proved to be a lovely place. The town includes a very large botanical garden that goes on for miles. This was a welcomed sight since I won't be seeing greenery for a while. It did feel kind of like time travel, however, to be walking through a spring time setting when I had just left the color changes and rainy days of fall a few days before. Still, the emerging tulips and fresh leaves on the trees matched with the cool crisp air made it a bliss full two days of exploring. I was also very interested to see the amount of businesses coping with the loss of the city by taking over buildings in the neighborhoods. It seemed that every empty gas stationed had been turned into a restaurant and every house a doctor's or contractor's office of one sort or another. Our friendly hotel bartender had passed on the information that even on the most quiet of nights it was still wise to call ahead for a reservation considering the number of bars and restaurants had been cut in half and people still wanted to go out.
             The most exciting was not a place, but an event. The All Blacks, New Zealand's rugby team, were playing Australia's Wallabies. To add excitement to the already heated match was New Zealand hosting the current Rugby World Cup. Naturally the locals were in sporting form with everyone of us visitors feeling a sense of duty to wear black on the night of the big game. Either for joining in, or just not wanting to be the one sticking out, the majority of us dawned our blacks and hung out in various bars to watch the game. Like flies, we dropped. The combination of jet lag and a 4:15 am wake up call forced most of us to call it a night before the end. I managed to squeeze the last bits of the game in while I repacked my bag and NZ won by a landslide. Great game.
              The forty plus folks I got to travel with have become such a relief to me. The question was asked, "What if you get down there and you don't like anyone?" I assure you now that anyone traveling to Antarctica is worth it. Some very down to earth, entertaining people to be met. I already find myself bonding with the group on the platform that we all have at least one thing in common. As I continue to learn new things about them and hear their stories, I have to say this is one awesome group of people to be stuck on an ice shelf with, and that makes me happy.
              More from and about the ice later.

Till next time,
Chris