The Weekend's Adventures...

Hello everyone,

We had the weekend free, so I tried to take advantage of the time away from class.

Satruday

Some students stayed on campus to watch the Lincoln Rugby game, others went to downtown Christchurch, and some of us went to Akaroa.

Akaroa is a small city on banks penninsula with a lovely harbor. Akaroa was a French settlement, even though New Zealand was owned by the British. Akaroa is a good place to see Hector's dolphins, seals, or penguins!! Unfortunately, we were not there at the right time of day, and didn't have a chance to see any of those.

While we were in Akaroa we got in some shopping, and then went on a short hike to a light house and two cemetaries. It was very fun, and the scenery was beautiful!!

On the way back our tour bus stopped at a cheese factory and we got to sample different types of cheeses. Mmmm.

Sunday

Some of the group went to a science museum and some of us went to the International Antarctic Center!

The center was really neat, and fitting for our NZ experience (sine Christchurch is the take-off point for Antarctic expeditions). The first thing we did was ride in a real Haglund, which are the cool tank-looking vehicles that they drive around Antarctica. We drove up big hills, across crevices, and even through a pond (apparently the Haglund is amphibious). It was pretty rough, but fun.

Inside the center we saw the little blue penguins!! Most of the penguins were rescued from the wild and had disabilities. One penguin only had one foot, a few were blind, one had a paralyzed flipper, and they were all super adorable. There was also a pretty sweet movie that had clips of Antarctica that were taken from an airplane.

Oh, and there was a room with an artificial snow storm!! They gave everyone boots and jackets before we went in because it gets down to a wind chill of -18C, which was -0.9 F, which is a normal winter for us in the midwest, and a warm summer day for someone on Antarcitica. Winters in Antarctica can drop down to -40 or -50C. Brrrr.

After the Antarctic Center we headed back to Christchurch and went to the jazz service at the cathedral in Cathedral Square, so that was nice.

Today we spent more time doing our herbivory field work. I believe tomorrow is more herbivory work and some sanddunes work. Thursday we'll be leaving for our class trip to Banks Penninsula. I'm pretty excited.

This is the one of the plants that we are studying. It's called the five-finger. Exciting... = ]

That's all for now,

Hilary