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From issue: Summer 2002

Just Like the Real Thing

by Kate Edwards

If you want to live, breathe and feel Antarctica, albeit for an hour, visit the International Antarctic Centre at Christchurch.

By recreating the atmosphere of the Great White South, the centre explains – in a non-musty way – what is known about the place and the lives and work of the research teams at New Zealand’s Scott Base.

The centre is a realistic attempt to let visitors experience life in Antarctica. Before entering the “snow and ice experience” chamber, piled high with snow, visitors pull on
the parka and overboots supplied ready to tramp past a snow cave, snow mounds and a snowmobile. They can crank up the wind-chill simulator to feel what it’s like doing
chores in minus 18 deg C.

A display shows four seasons of a year in Antarctica in a few minutes, and from next September a new feature will allow visitors to experience an Antarctic storm.

In the movie room, watching a film on Antarctic wildlife is like sitting in a hide on an iceberg while the wildlife carry on their day close at hand. A fish tank at the centre shows life lower down the food chain.

Visitors can experience an offroad ride in the centre’s Hagglund - a 16-seat tracked vehicle that has replaced teams of huskies as ice transport - over hills, a crevasse and
through deep water.

The centre is a showcase of modern endeavour rather than historic exhibits. But one glimpse of the past, an actor reading from Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s diary in the darkness, sends chills up the spine.

The centre is more than just an amusement park. Sharing the campus are the New Zealand, United States and Italian Antarctic research programmes and the International
Centre for Antarctic Information and Research. Nearby is a depot for the big transport planes that serve the on-ice research programmes.