It is the middle of the summer here now, and the first things you notice when you get out of the airport are just how warm it is, and the quality of lighting has a definite summer-ness to it.
The trip was long but fairly uneventful. I sat next to an American who had been to Antarctica in the Dry Valleys about 10 years ago. He now works for an agency equivalent to NOAA in Auckland, New Zealand. One of his current projects is to use trace-radioactivity to date ice cores and rocks etc., and another is to use tree rings to study how trends in El Nino is changing over time.
Today I had essentially a free day in Christchurch. I caught up with my email, and I went out to walk around the town for a while. I got a Japanese haircut, had some Japanese food (and ice cream!), walked around some more, then went to the Caterbury Museum at the Botanical Garden, then saw the roses at the garden. I saw an exhibit on the Scott and Hilary expeditions from the first half of the 1900's, and they have on exhibit some of the vehicles that were used for those expeditions. I uploaded some photos so you can have a look:
http://picasaweb.google.com/RainSnow3Ice/ChristchurchDecember2010
The colors are so intense now, and the roses in the Botanical Garden are in full bloom.
Tomorrow I go to CDC to pick up my Antarctic jacket, boots, and other ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear.
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