Christchurch - New Zealand
8/12/05
We arrived around midnight in Christchurch, picked up the rental car that Flavien nicely booked for us and headed to a hostel in the center. In the morning, when we drove around the city we realized how small it was, although, it is a gateway to New Zealand.
We stopped in one of the few animated streets for a delicious brunch, sitting outside enjoying the sunny weather. While waiting for the food we had a closer look in the profile of the country. We realized that everything in New Zealand is small, there are only 4 millions of people in both islands being Auckland the biggest city with 1.3 millions.
We then walked around the charming gardens of the Homestead before visiting the center of the city.
We made a mandatory stop at the Cathedral; its foundation was laid in 1864 and it was open for the first time in 1881, but final completion was not done until 1900.
At the square where the Cathedral is located there was a big chess game going on. (literary)
Then we headed to the best part of the visit in Christchurch, the Antarctic Center. Christchurch is the aerial gateway to the Antarctica and it is the departure point of 70% of the expeditions going there.
There are tons of information on researches made on the frozen continent, penguins, how it formed and how it helps to understand the global warming.
There is a room demonstrating how people live in the New Zealand's base in Antarctica and simulator to let you grasp how the wind is like there.
Surprising things we learned:
- It is not an ice cap, but a completely frozen continent rounded by glaciers.
- It is one of the driest places on earth, comparable to Sahara.
- Because it is not much humidity there is very little snow there.
- Winds reach over 300 kilometers per hour.
- Hair grows 3 times faster if you're living there.
- It registered the lowest temperature on the planet, -83C.
- At that temperature, with normal clothes, you would die in less then 10 min.
We spent the rest of the day learning about Antarctica until they kicked us out of the center when it closed :)
Enough of Christchurch we headed south to Timaru.
We arrived around midnight in Christchurch, picked up the rental car that Flavien nicely booked for us and headed to a hostel in the center. In the morning, when we drove around the city we realized how small it was, although, it is a gateway to New Zealand.
We stopped in one of the few animated streets for a delicious brunch, sitting outside enjoying the sunny weather. While waiting for the food we had a closer look in the profile of the country. We realized that everything in New Zealand is small, there are only 4 millions of people in both islands being Auckland the biggest city with 1.3 millions.
We then walked around the charming gardens of the Homestead before visiting the center of the city.
We made a mandatory stop at the Cathedral; its foundation was laid in 1864 and it was open for the first time in 1881, but final completion was not done until 1900.
At the square where the Cathedral is located there was a big chess game going on. (literary)
Then we headed to the best part of the visit in Christchurch, the Antarctic Center. Christchurch is the aerial gateway to the Antarctica and it is the departure point of 70% of the expeditions going there.
There are tons of information on researches made on the frozen continent, penguins, how it formed and how it helps to understand the global warming.
There is a room demonstrating how people live in the New Zealand's base in Antarctica and simulator to let you grasp how the wind is like there.
Surprising things we learned:
- It is not an ice cap, but a completely frozen continent rounded by glaciers.
- It is one of the driest places on earth, comparable to Sahara.
- Because it is not much humidity there is very little snow there.
- Winds reach over 300 kilometers per hour.
- Hair grows 3 times faster if you're living there.
- It registered the lowest temperature on the planet, -83C.
- At that temperature, with normal clothes, you would die in less then 10 min.
We spent the rest of the day learning about Antarctica until they kicked us out of the center when it closed :)
Enough of Christchurch we headed south to Timaru.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 8:11 AM
1 Comments:
When you go to Christchurch, do not miss the brunch at "The Tap Room": http://www.thetaproom.co.nz/ and the "lamb and mint" pizza. Really delicious. And go wash your hands in the restrooms: you will not be disappointed.
Fortunately, when seeking the cathedral and going by all crosses on the town's map, we found:
- heavenly houses and gardens at Mona Vale,
- a very cheap French guide of New Zealand without which we would have navigated around NZ with no clue on what we were seeing!
Flavien.
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