Day 12: A Peaceful War Zone

Awoke today at 6:15 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I sat and read more of Jon Krakauer’s biography of NFL safety Pat Tillman, “Where Men Win Glory”. Out of bed for the morning routine at 7:30, and by 8:30, I was skimming my travel guides for information on rental cars or campervans to replace the motorbike I’ll be turning in tomorrow.

There were two campervan companies I decided to investigate, and as I couldn’t get a WiFi connection in my room, I headed for the two public-use PC’s in the lounge. I decided to rent a “sleepervan” from the aptly named Backpacker Sleeper Vans. It’s built on something like a VW Vanagon chassis, has two seats (one more than I need!), a compressor fridge, gas cooktop, and converts to a bed in back. Under $50 (NZ) per day, and I can pick it up around noon tomorrow.

As I had time remaining on my pre-paid session, I checked in at home as well via Skype. This is really an amazing service; the call quality is excellent, and the voice connection to any dialed number only costs 2.3 cents (US) per minute. (If you call PC-to-PC using Skype at both ends, the cost is zero – but that requires being at both PC’s simultaneously. Calling an existing land line or cell is worth the 2.3 cents per minute – call me extravagant.)Under sunny skies and a temperature of 7 C, I left for the International Antarctic Center (IAC) at 10:15 a.m. The Center serves as the coordinating agency for the activities of the U.S., New Zealand, and Italian Antarctic programs, as well as providing a variety of educational and recreational activities. The ride to the IAC was about 8 km, and took about 15 minutes in light, Sunday morning traffic.

The vehicle in front of the building is a Hagglund, a tracked vehicle built in Sweden that is widely used for travel in Antarctica. Both the tractor and the trailer have powered treads, providing an ability to climb a 45 degree slope, traverse a side slope of 31 degrees, cross crevasses of about 70 cm, and ford water crossings up to 3 meters deep. I was able to get the front passenger seat for my ride, and the capabilities of the vehicle are impressive.

I also saw live, Little Blue penguins:

These penguins are about 25 cm (10 inches) tall, and are “rescued” birds that have been cared for at the IAC as their injuries would have made their survival in the wild unlikely.

(Side note: The first King penguin to visit New Zealand since the 1940’s turned up in Christchurch a few weeks ago – obviously lost, as King penguins don’t normally travel the 3,800 km (2,400 miles) from Antarctica to New Zealand, and it’s WAY too warm for them here. The penguin, named “Happy Feet” by the local press, has gained quite a bit of celebrity.

But due to the unusually warm temps (if you’re a penguin), Happy Feet tried to cool himself / herself (even the experts aren’t sure) by eating some snow at his feet on the beach – but he was actually eating sand and twigs, not snow, as that’s what is on Christchurch beaches, not like Antarctica. This made Happy Feet quite ill, so they performed stomach surgery on him, and he seems to be on the mend. But now, he’s become a Bird Without A Country: he can’t be repatriated to the Antarctic now (it’s winter, and there are no transport services to Antarctica in the winter), and he may already have picked up some germs that could be disastrous if he were later repatriated. So what do you do with Happy Feet? Who knows; film at 10!)

I spent some time reading the exhibits, experiencing an “Antarctic Blast” (which felt a lot like snowblowing my driveway), and watching a 3D movie filmed in Antarctica. I was amazed that their replica of Scott’s Antarctic hut from 1910 contained a cast-iron, wood-fired cookstove; I know the explorers needed to eat, but this stove must have weighed three to four hundred pounds – a lot of cargo to bring around the world for the exploration. I left the IAC at 2:15, and headed toward Christchurch city center to do some exploring.

Amazing.

Although I’ve been fortunate enough to never have experienced being in a war zone, that’s what the center of Christchurch looks like. The heart of the city – an area roughly 4 blocks by 8 blocks – is closed. It is surrounded by chain link fencing, and although reconstruction personnel are allowed in the area with permission, on this Sunday afternoon there was absolutely no one inside the perimeter. It’s haunting, eerie, and very disturbing.

Many of the buildings were damaged in the first earthquake, which was a magnitude 6.5 if I recall correctly. But many more were ruined by the magnitude 6.3 aftershock that occurred months later. The above photo shows the remains of one of the Canterbury Village offices from the late 1800’s. At the time, Canterbury was vying with Wellington to be the nation’s capitol, and this was one of the buildings that was planned for the capitol complex. It was eventually decided that Christchurch was too far south to be the capitol, but the building was magnificent. If you look at the left-side of the photo, you can see the twisted remains of scaffolding that was being used as part of a stabilization effort following the first quake – but which was destroyed along with the rest of the building by the largest aftershock.

It will take years, if not decades, to rebuild Christchurch. And even then, the city will have lost much of its heritage and heart. It’s a very disturbing sight.

So I hopped back on the bike, stopped to get a pizza for dinner, and was back in my cabin by 5:30 p.m. Tomorrow, I start a new, four wheeled chapter of this tour… now christened the “Two-point-eight Wheeling New Zealand” adventure.

Motorcycle mileage: 40 km for the day