Aussiehalley - Halley Down Under

Sister cities

Chicago teaches many lessons that aren't apparent until years later.

Case in point: on Tuesday, I was at the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch. 70% of all Antarctic trips depart from there and there's a whole big information centre/ attraction complex there for visitors. So on another freezing (but at least it was raining) morning, I learned all about Antarctic voyages and the locale. Particularly interesting was the storm that you can experience.

You get a extra cold-weather gear and go into a room that is veddy, veddy cold. It has snow on the ground, ice blocks, and a "wind chill" machine (which I skipped, thanks). It's a neat simulation, they do a radio transmission, like two stations are communicating, about the approaching storm and then the "sunlight" goes dark, the winds pick up, the temp drops, and it's really noisy.

And as all this is going on, I'm thinking to myself: Wow, I thought it'd be worse. It's definitely cold, but it just just feels like Chicago during a bad winter cold snap. I've been in worse.... Dude, I should just get out of here. This is crazy to keep standing here when it just feels like "winter"...

Seriously.

Granted, they can't do a storm as bad as all the Antarctic "worst" records because we would all die. And, while authentic, I'm sure very few people would've paid money for that. (As it is, they could only keep us in there for so long before they start getting sued by blue-lipped, no-fingered people.)

Chicago and Antarctica. We suspected all along that there was some kind of black hole vortex so they could share the same weather. And now, experiential proof. Sort of.

It turns out that the Kiwis, the Americans, and the Italians all have their stations near each other in Antarctica, so they all have their Christchurch bases together, too. I can only imagine what some of those drinking sessions are like down there...

Oh! And I took the ride on the Hagglund, a vehicle that they drive around in down there. Up and down STEEP hills, on 45 degree angles, semi-submersible. I'm thinking of getting one for all of my off-roading needs.

All of this coldness was in addition to the skiing I did the day before in the Southern Alps, at Mt. Hutt. We had to drive way the heck up the mountain to get to the base. Very beautiful and very scary. It'd been 10 years since I'd skied, so it was like starting over. Starting over, very high up. I spent the day with the goal of not missing a turn and flying off the side of the mountain to a painful death. Good times, good times.

I woke up the next day with sore arms. Yes, sore arms, not legs. I suppose I may have been clutching the poles a bit. But just clutching them, not really using them. I just like to hold onto something. Even if that something is moving, too. Somehow, I don't think skiing the famous slopes of Wisconsin prepared me...

posted by Halley @ 3:11 AM