Antarctic Adventurers

The day after Christmas in New Zealand is also a holiday, called Boxing Day, but we couldn't find anyone that could tell us why they celebrated it. We called our parents from a pay phone (it was Christmas Day in the States, as NZ is almost a full day ahead of the US) and then took the kids to the Antarctic Adventure Center. The kids loved seeing the injured Little Blue Penguins they had rescued, some of them wearing little green socks on damaged feet. We took a roller coaster type ride in a real snow cat on a test course, and experienced an Antarctic spring storm. They provided thick winter coats and galoshes and you went into a room filled with snow and an ice slide. Every half hour they would dim the lights and blow the wind and have you experience the wind chill. Steve and I laughed and agreed that if felt just like going from your car to the grocery store in Minnesota in January. Maybe we'll summer in the Antarctic next.

We spent the next night (Dec. 27, 06) in Oamaru, to get a glimpse of yellow eyed penguins in the wild. They are the rarest penguins, and we spent almost 3 hours in the pouring rain watching eight or nine of them swim up to shore and hike a steep hill to their nests. One of them came ashore and turned around and waited very patiently. We didn't know why until about a half hour later another penguin arrived. The first penguin ran out to greet it and with their little flippers out they looked like they were hugging.

We decided to stick out the cold like Antarctic explorers and learned a lot about meeting a goal, even if it's not comfortable. We learned a lot about penguins in the wild, but even more about ourselves.

To see a map of the places we traveled so far in this series, click on this link: <http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&ie=UTF8&ll=-40.359103,172.875366&spn=8.067848,12.128906&z=6&msid=116765397961150020384.000451b63510a46db34d4>