Christchurch, New Zealand

The biennial Te Matatini ('mata' meaning face or faces and 'tini' meaning many) was taking place when we arrived in Christchurch.  What extraordinary luck to be treated to the very best Kapa haka ('kapa' meaning to form a line and 'haka' to dance) in the world.  We watched this group practicing in the parking lot of our holiday park. Incredible voices, Maori dancing, and an emotional performance.

We visited the Antarctic Centre in Christchurch. This is where several countries base their Antarctic program from.

The best part of it was when I froze my hands off.  I put my hands in freezing Antarctic water.  There was a timer and I got to eight minutes.  It was really COLD!

Wearing coats we went into minus 23 degrees Celsius in the Antarctic room for five minutes.  First you see the Antarctic with a snowmobile, an igloo, a wind chill machine, and snow on the ground.  Next the lights go dim and we hear a voice announcing that a storm is coming. We feel excited when hear and feel the wind howling. It was so cold that we went into the igloo because it was warmer inside.  It was awesome!  -Emma

I visited Christchurch about 17 years ago, and remember it as a charming, historic city. Unfortunately, it has been devasted by the earthquake of Feb 22, 2011, which claimed 185 lives. Wandering around the city centre four years later it's still quite depressing as you go block to block filled with either vacant lots (buildings already fallen or torn down), or buildings condemned and awaiting destruction. One bright spot was the ReStart mall, which was a set of shipping containers which were brightly painted and acting as shops, bars and restaurants for business left homeless after the quake.

We even visited the temporary home of Christchurch Cathedral which was brilliantly created from giant cardboard rolls. The fate of the city's namesake cathedral is still being debated between those wanting a new building and those wanting to keep as much of the historic original as possible.

Apparently the economy has suffered quite a blow (our taxi driver in Auckland was a transplant), although if you're in construction there's plenty of work to do.

One poignant spot I came across was a large armchair and footstool made from thousands of shards of china which residents donated after the quake. Also included in the description was a letter from a woman in her 80s describing the desperately hard life that her grandmother had had as an immigrant to New Zealand, saving until late in life she could finally buy a nice tea set with beautiful violet flowers. You can see them in the close up I took of the footstool. - Steve