Journey to the Antarctic by Sydney Kerr


Today we went to the coldest, windiest, highest, and driest place on Earth! ….Well almost. Our group had the privilege to explore the International Antarctic Centre located in Christchurch. The Centre has been open since 1992 and has been educating the public on the Antarctic ever since. There are only a small handful of countries that provide access to Antarctica and New Zealand is one of them.

Demo dogs

To begin our tour, we got a wonderful presentation from Bu about how Antarctica came to be and who discovered it. Due to oral records that have been passed down through generations, we know Antarctica was discovered by a Polynesian man who described white rocks coming out of the sea. This observation would make sense since these people had likely never seen ice before. This fact was most surprising! After the “official” written discovery of this icy land, European whalers and sealers soon followed. The use of whale for oil and bones, and seal for clothes in high fashion contributed to movement of men into the arctic seas. Unfortunately, thousands of whales and seals were killed during this period, and many ships were lost. The next great land exploration was the great race to the south pole. A race between Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen began! Amundsen and his Norwegian team made it to the pole first. Sadly, Scott and his team perished in the return trip due to starvation and extreme cold.

Next, we went out on a drive in a Hägglund, which are real vehicles used in the Antarctic for exploration and travel. The design allows for travel over snow drifts, crevasses, water, and hills the size of 2 story buildings! This was probably my favorite part of the visit. These vehicles quickly replaced the usual method of land travel in Antarctica which was by dog sleds due to the ease in which they move over the rough terrain. Our guide even told us the Hägglunds can float! We received a great talk from a man who works with these dogs on how they were required to travel from Northern areas such as Siberia and Alaska, all the way to Antarctica. Only the strongest of these dogs survived weeks of being on ships and then even longer in the harsh frozen environments they were required to work in. I can’t imagine what they went through. I can barely stand 20°F weather!

Hägglund crossing a “crevasse”.

Finally, we went through the Centre’s gallery which included lots of information about Antarctica and its honorable mentions. Inside there were details describing The Antarctic Treaty, stating Antarctica must be used for scientific and peaceful purposes only. It also does not allow the introduction of any new species. Almost every nation I can think of signed the treaty. It’s amazing to see the cooperation between New Zealand and the US. The US even has a small sliver of territory in NZ for their airbase. And of course, I couldn’t leave the Centre without stopping by the giftshop and getting my own little blue penguin!

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