The next stop on the Diamond Princess was Christchurch, New Zealand. We decided to explore this port on our own rather than book an excursion with the ship. We had a very busy plan for the day!
Daniel was training for the marathon during the trip. As part of his training he does a "long run" every weekend to build up to the 26.2 miles. He decided he'd do his long run in Christchurch. I think he was getting a little bored running around the ship deck so many times. So we made a plan. We wanted to visit the Antarctic Museum in the morning. We'd love to visit all seven continents during our travels, but I know that Antarctica might be a challenge. Unless Daniel signs up for this marathon. So until then we'll visit the Antarctic museum. New Zealand is only about 2500 km away from the frozen continent. After the museum, which is located a bit outside of the main part of town (near the airport actually), we wanted to meet up and explore the center of Christchurch. So we'd travel to the museum together and after our visit Daniel would run into town and meet me there.
So that morning soon after the ship docked, we arrived in central Christchurch to buy our tickets to the museum and hopped on the "Penguin Express." Twenty minutes later we arrived and began exploring.
One of the coolest exhibits was "The Storm." We saw a blinking sign alerting us to the next storm in 20 minutes and we had to see what was going on. We layered up in the jackets, snow boots, and gloves they provide at the door and we entered an icy room with an igloo and some other fun stuff. It was freezing in there!! But the storm hadn't even started yet.
Once the storm started, the wind started howling and the temperature dropped significantly. We huddled close together to keep warm. This is what I looked like during most of the storm. Growing up in Buffalo should have prepared me for this! The storm was supposed to simulate a "warm" spring day in Antarctica. Yikes.
After the storm passed we left to explore the rest of the museum. They had some very cool exhibits, including a log showing pictures and temperature readings every day for the past year from scientists doing research in Antarctica. They also had the Penguin Encounter, where you could watch a feeding and get very close to these adorable blue penguins. The penguins were rescued because they all have injuries and couldn't survive in the wild.
After exploring the museum, Daniel left on foot and I hopped on the Penguin Express to get back into town. I actually had to make a trip back to the cruise ship before Daniel and I would meet up again. Since we knew he was going for a run, we packed very lightly for the day and instead of bringing our wallet and purse we just took some cash. We sort of underestimated the cost of the Antarctic Center (and didn't check the cost beforehand DOH!) so we only had enough money with us for admission to the museum and one trip back to the ship on the bus. Daniel would have run back to the ship but there was a tunnel on the way that did no allow pedestrians. Lesson learned - always bring a credit card just in case!
In the end, our plan worked out and Daniel and I met up again and explored Christchurch before the day drew to a close and we made our way back to the Diamond Princess.
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