John Cornhill

fri 24 am pottering, afternoon on beach very hot and sunny lots sun protection needed a bit like bantham read and slept lots. evening did Waimakariri Walkway near camp 11k between Brooklands Lagoon and Spencer Beach. lots of pines and coastal flowers and bantham grass. a very pleasant walk.

sat25, am went shopping in 'the warehouse' bought 2 cheap wicking tops and a warm shirt. then went to antarctica, travelled on a hagglund all-terrain vehicle with caterpillar tracks and proved to be amphibian when we went thru a 5m deep pool of water. we also went up and down a series of steep hills including a 45 degree up and down a 2 storey high ridge. then back to the main building wherein the exhibition, right next to Christchurch airport, had a whole series of attractions including interactives, covering the history of antarctica's formation, Scott, the weather there, penguins incl. some live ones on show, seals, birds,, sea life. There's a freezing cold room you can go in with real snow and ice and they turn the temperature down to -5 degrees and blow a freezing blizzard at you taking the wind chill to -18 degrees c why did i go in? Lots of other stuff to see stayed longer than intended but still went on to the nearby Willowbank Wildlife Reserve which also turned out to have more than I expected, a veritable feast of wildlife presentaed in a woodland walk: stroked a huge eel, meandered thru the lost swamp, saw wallabys, parrots, kunekune pigs, tuatua (ancient lizard) among lots of others and all importantly, my first kiwis and possums. the lady running the campsite had an orfan one when she was young. she called it peter possum. what can I say. I especially enjoyed the day because I got into both attractions at a pensioners reduced price. happy days, John John Cornhill