Christchurch is one of the largest cities in New Zealand and is the largest city located on the country’s South Island. Known most recently for two earthquakes in the region (in 2010 and 2011), it is also known for its connection to Antarctica. Specifically, Christchurch is known as a gateway to Antarctica as it has a long history of being a departure point for Antarctic exploration expeditions. For example, both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton departed from the port of Lyttelton in Christchurch and the Christchurch International Airport is a base for the New Zealand, Italian, and United States Antarctic exploration programs. With this in mind, we decided to make our Christchurch experience one that centered around Antarctica. Namely, we spent our day at the International Antarctica Centre.

The Centre has, obviously, a focus on all things Antarctica. Upon entering, the very first experience we did was to put on some winter coats and step into a room where we could “brave an Antarctic storm.” I have to put quotes around it because that’s what they say but in many ways it felt like any other storm we’ve experienced in the Midwest – harsh wind, super cold, with snow. It was neat having it happen indoors, of course, with temperatures dropping and the wind and wind chill picking up steadily. Inside the room there was an igloo you could crawl into and some snowmobiles for visual effect.

Another neat place in the Centre was the penguin experience. It was a whole exhibit about the blue penguin, cute little buggers that had been rescued and are now living in the Centre. They had stories posted about each of the penguins, some of whom had been injured by dogs or other prey, others that had been hurt by accidents, and others from humans.

Our exposure to them was seeing them in their little nesting areas, cuddled up with one another under red lights.

After the penguins we went into a 4D experience. We donned some 3D glasses and watched a short flick that put us into Antarctica aboard an ice breaker and on land with penguins and seals. The 4D effects included the chairs shaking as the ice breaker busted through some ice, water splashing on us as waves hit us or a bird pooped on us, and wind blowing all around us as we walked along the land. While it’s true that such 4D experiences haven’t seemed to evolve much in the past decade it was still a fun way to spend some time at the Centre.

We made our way through the exhibits about Antarctica and explorers until it was time for the big off-road adventure in a Hägglund. These vehicles are the ones with treads on the bottom like tanks that they use in Antarctica because they can go on land and water, and across crevasses.

There are several Hägglunds that have been retired and now are used at the Centre for visitor experiences. We boarded the Hägglund and made our way to an obstacle course where we went up and down steep hills, over a crevasse, across water, over logs, and sideways on an incline to demonstrate what the vehicles could do. It was bumpy and fun as we hung on, not knowing what might be next. The whole ‘ride’ was less than 10 minutes, but memorable, nonetheless.

Here we are outside of one of the Hägglunds that Sir Edmund Hillary (the NZ explorer who climbed Mt. Everest) personally signed.

Our last stop in the Centre was with the huskies. There was an exhibit dedicated to the dogs that used to brave the elements alongside the explorers. A Māori gentleman brought out four dogs and talked to us about the ‘real heroes’ – the dogs.

He talked about the fact that dogs used to be critical for Antarctic exploration because of their bravery and ability to handle the elements. Horses were too heavy and would fall into the crevasses but the dogs were light on their feet and could sense the movement of the earth beneath them and avoid such falls. Unfortunately, most dogs who went on the expeditions died – often from human consumption (starvations leads to eating man’s best friend…). Nowadays, dogs don’t go to Antarctica, in part because they don’t want to introduce diseases like distemper into the habitat – and also because it’s freezing and not a great place for the puppers. It was interesting, though we all agreed that this part was a bit longer than was needed to get the points across. The dogs were cute though. 😊

The tagline for the Centre is “See it. Love it. Save it.” We saw it, loved it, and can see why it is worth saving. So a good visit overall.

This was all we did in Christchurch, though we saw the city from our shuttle and Ubers, so we did get a glimpse of life beyond the Centre.