My time in Christchurch, more preparations

I have been staying at the Ashley Hotel, which is a few blocks west of Hagley Park, a large park that includes a botanical garden and lots of trails and playing fields. Co-worker Erin and I went for a run/walk through the park to celebrate being off the planes!  Erin, Levi, and I walked for about an hour and a half trying to find some other Antarctica people but failed. We had dinner at Sophie’s Café and took a free bus back to near our hotel and collapsed for the night.

Yesterday morning we headed to the CDC, Clothing Distribution Center(not Centers for Disease Control!) and were issued our ECW, extreme cold weather gear. The process included lots of information and trying on so many layers! We had to try every zipper, snap and item to ensure it fits and works properly. 

We will have to wear most of the ECW on the plane and the rest packed in our bags. Our bags fall into 3 categories: carry-on, boomerang bag, and checked bags. The first and last your are probably familiar with but a boomerang bag is the one we get back in the event our plane takes off but can’t land on the ice.

Some pics of the gear issue process…

Examples

My Bags

Work uniform

Julie with the hats

Holy Hot!

Bunny boots!

Feeling my inner Vermont child

My name tag on "Big Red"

After all this a group of us kitchen rats spent time walking around the botanical gardens(signs of spring everywhere!) and then touring the edges of the devastated downtown area that was damaged by the earthquake and is not fenced off. Very scary and sad at the same time. 

Beautiful flowering trees

Lots of flowers!

Some damage

An example of one of many buildings.