Ambassador Dragon

Kia ora,

My name is Dragon and I am the mascot for my class at St Mark's School in Christchurch.

I go home with a member of the class each night. I love to ride scooters, bake cakes and I also love being read to. I crave adventure and can't wait to begin my amazing journey down to Antarctica.

See you there,

Dragon.

Tuesday 8 November

Kia ora,

It is so amazing to be down here in Antarctica! I can’t believe how lucky we’ve been with a great flight and perfect weather for our Antarctic field training.

My first glimpse of Antarctica from the plane was pretty special. I was surprised by how many mountains there are. It only took five hours to get here and I can’t wait to explore. 

See you tomorrow,

Dragon.

Wednesday 9 November

Hi there,

After two sunny days here in Antarctica I was surprised to wake up to fog and snow being blown around. Luckily the fog did not stay around and the sun broke through.

We met members of the Antarctic Heritage Trust who are working on restoring Hillary’s Hut. This hut was built by Sir Edmund Hillary and his team during the Trans-Antarctic Expedition when Hillary’s party were the first to reach the South Pole on tractors.

It was neat to see how this hut is being restored. People were working on the roof and carefully removing asbestos inside – it looked like hard work!

Well, it has been a busy day so I’ll say good-bye.

Dragon.

Thursday 10 November

Kia ora,

It was awesome to talk to my classmates today during the audioconference – I was really proud of everyone’s great questions!

We went out to Discovery Hut today. This hut was built back in 1902 and I was amazed at how well everything had been preserved. You could even see biscuits in one of the boxes – I bet they don’t taste very nice now.

Tomorrow we are off to Cape Evans which is much further away so I’m off now for a good night’s sleep.

See you in the morning,

Dragon.

Friday 11 November

Hi there,

We travelled miles across the sea ice today to visit Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans. This hut was built back in 1910. 

I really enjoyed zooming across the sea ice in the Hagglund, even though it was a bit bumpy. It was hard to believe that we were on frozen sea water. It took two hours to arrive at Cape Evans. It was fantastic looking around Scott’s Hut. It was so much nicer than his Discovery Hut, with gas lights and stoves which would have always been burning to keep the hut warm.

I saw lots of science gear in the hut and learnt that there were twelve scientists in Scott’s team who studied lots of different plants, animals, geology, weather and glaciers. This work helped people to understand Antarctica better and is continuing today.

Talk soon,

Dragon.

Monday 14 November

Hi there,

It was a shock to hear about the earthquakes back in New Zealand and I certainly hope everyone is safe and well. 

We spent today out at Cape Royds. This is where Shackleton built his hut back in 1907. Fifteen men lived in this hut for two years. The hut was small but felt more comfortable than Scott’s hut.

I saw Adelie penguins waddling around the colony and found out about the science that Shackleton’s team did. It is hard to imagine living here for two years. Those guys must have been really tough!

Talk to you tomorrow,

Dragon.

Tuesday 15 November

Kia ora,

We had a fantastic last day in Antarctica. We travelled out to the K131 field camp on a helicopter. It was really neat to fly across the sea ice and it saved us hours of skidoo travel.

I was surprised at how flash the camp was. I thought the scientists might be staying in tents but they had containers to live in and do science and even had electricity so they could stay warm. The scientists had some weird looking instruments to measure the sea water and were recording lots of information to better understand sea ice formation.

Well it has been an amazing trip but I'm looking forward to getting home and catching up with everyone.

See you soon,

Dragon.