We are currently staying in Christchurch and it will be our base for the next few days till we leave for Melbourne. Our home is an old jail that has been converted into a hostel but has kept all the character!!!

The rooms are the actual cells and Mel and I are Fletcher and Godber!!! It is really echoey and a cool, place to stay.

Today we visited the Antarctic Centre near the airport, this was a really cool place to visit (there is a joke there somewhere!!) You got to ride a Hagglund all terrain vehicle over a course and it was really bumpy and it also goes across gaps in the ground up to 2 metres wide. We got to go amphibious as well when the driver took us through the lake where water was up over the windows.

We followed this up with a visit to see the rescued Blue Penguins which are the smallest penguins in the world, they reminded me a little bit of Mel but not sure why!!! We got to see them feeding on sprats and swimming around which was good.

Our last interactive section of the day was in the ice station area set up like you were really in Antarctica. You could sit on a skidoo and ride an ice slide but then the real action begins, they blow an artificial storm through there and the temperature drops to -18.5 degrees C and the winds are 30mph take it from us it was really cold and after 20 minutes in there we could not feel our noses on our faces!!!

After all this action we decided to slow things down a liitle and went for a walk in Hagley Park and Botanical Gardens (they are free) and had a walk down by the river Avon to catch the last of the winter sun.

Kia Ora

M & M