14 November 2007 Almost there!!!!

Wednesday, November 12-14, 2007

Christchurch, New Zealand

I have one more flight left to get to McMurdo! We have taken 4 flights to get this far! At the end of last week I finished getting my students ready for my absence. Julia has the Geo2 students and Sandy has the Geo1 and everything will be great! On Friday, I started the day off with a surprise bon voyage celebration from the school and the whole day continued like that. I was packed and ready to go on Saturday and didn’t leave until Monday morning. I decided to cook a modified Thanksgiving dinner for everyone since I usually cooked and my Mom declared that if I was not going to be here then she was not going to have dinner at her house. Sunday I cooked dinner, graded the last papers that were turned in and wrote college recommendations for some of my students.

My son’s cat Reggie was trying desperately to persuade me that he would not upset the luggage weight limit. He was finally convinced to go play with the dogs and not try to stowaway in my suitcase.

Reggie trying to sneak along!

This is the Qantas Boeing 747 we flew to New Zealand on for 12 hours. It took and hour and a half to board everyone on the plane. They had a dedicated TV channel to plotting the route and the flight statistics. It really was the best thing on TV- but that is perhaps the geographer in me. I have often felt that all air flights should run this kind of information regardless of how long the flight it. It could only help to improve the understanding of "place” geography.

Tracking

                                Pattern of Rural land usage.. 

The following are a few images from Christchurch this afternoon. We had the afternoon off to "rest” and since I did that on the plane, I set out to see the downtown area of Christchurch. This Cathedral makes up the central plaza with all kinds of businesses surrounding the plaza. Only a few of the standard world market establishments like McDonald’s and Starbucks. Surprisingly, there were many local and Australian and East Pacific stores. I have included this picture of the menu at McDonald’s. Notice the local culture reflected in their regional menu.

Regional Influence on a Global Menu

It’s an early night and a busy day tomorrow. We go to the clothing distribution center to collect and try on all of the extreme cold weather gear and go to the Antarctic Center. More details for tomorrow!