Last Day in New Zealand April 16, 2011

Rainy day. We decide to go to the International Antarctic Centre. It was pretty pricey, but it turned out to be an interesting place with information on Antarctica. Our first half hour saw us on our trip on a Hagglund, a Swiss or Swedish built all terrain vehicle used in the Antarctic. There was a whole course built to travel over with this vehicle. We went up and over bumps and chicanes and over hills, especially one that replicated a crevasse. Then the hill of terror, so steep the driver could not see over it. And through a three foot deep pond. Quite amazing.

There were several rooms that provided the Antarctic experience, including one that was at a temperature of 17 degrees F. You put on parkas to enter it and then the wind began to blow and after it reached over 35 mph, with the howling sound in the background you could believe you were down there on the ice. There was snow underfoot as well.

On to the Little Blue Penguins-they have the capacity to keep 26 of them. Most have broken wings or beaks; one is blind. The viewing included seeing them in the water, on the rocks and in their dens. We did a 4-D movie, which was interesting, but being splashed in the face with water got old after the 3rd time.

We turned in our rental car and returned to the hotel to do laundry. Around 5:30 my worst fear happened. Our room started to shake and the ground rumbled and we experienced a 5.3 earthquake. It was the first aftershock in many weeks and was quite large. Power went out in parts of the city; however, we were ok. The hotel staff pointed out the gathering spot in the parking lot, should we need to evacuate. A little later in the evening, a second tremble was felt, but not anywhere as big as the earlier one. There is an amazing noise associated with these quakes; sounds like the earth is grumbling.

We got into bed, knowing we would be up at 3 a.m. to go to the airport for our flight to Sydney. It was quiet the rest of the night.