Christchurch

We had a lazy start to the day, Susan was keen to do some washing so we used the hotel facilities which took an hour or so. We went to a great cafe for breakfast, there were photographs of the owner with loads of famous people round the walls, even Michael Barrymore! They didn't want our photo!

We had booked tickets to the Antarctic Exhibition which is out near the airport. The tour began with a trip in a Hagglund all terrain vehicle, up hills down hills, through water, across gaps - it was very exciting. The we watched the penguins being fed, they are called "Little Blue Penguins" and I am sure Susan has one in her pocket, she fell in love with them right away, especially the one that was blind and had to feel its way round the enclosure using its beak. We experienced a typical antarctic wind storm in a storm room where wind chill temperature dropped to -18.5 Celsius. The whole thing was really interesting and informative.

We had planned to take the gondola up to the top of a local mountain and have dinner there tonight but it is closed so we'll do the gondola tomorrow but we wont have time for dinner as we have to be at the airport by 4.00pm.