Or How to Freak out Your Children in One Easy Step
A visit to the Golan Heights, the battleground of the 1973 Yom Kippur war is a surprising experience. It is actually a volcano covered in sculptures made from abandoned weapon parts.
Month: May 2016
Go to Jericho
We stopped in Jericho on the way to Beit Shean. If you’ve every really wanted to tell someone something years after their death you’ll understand how I felt there. I never heard my mother swear in a conventional manner but when she said Hell’s Bells (the buckets of blood were never invoked) you knew you were in trouble.
Going to Israel
Going to Israel was never near the top of a very long list but when an internet offer of a weeks tour around the country at a price nearly half of others I had seen popped up in my inbox what could I do?
A Walk Around Tel Aviv
The White City
Tel Aviv feels different from the rest of Israel it has a Mediterranean coastline and a European feeling.
Antarctic
The Antarctic must be on many bucket lists. Unfortunately a cruise will cost you at least £4000 and even worse involve many sea days. Sea days for me are the penance you do for taking a cruise. I have no wish to learn how to fold napkins or make animals out of towels and I just can’t concentrate on Bingo.
A serious alternative at the top of my list is a 2000 AUD flight from Sydney, Perth or Melbourne to the Polar ice cap. This 12 hour flight doesn’t land but promises unrivalled views and photo opportunities. Maybe one day.
The Antarctic Experience
But until then The Antarctic Experience next to Christchurch airport is a fun half day trip. We wondered if it might be just suitable for kids but the free shuttle bus from town, complete with model penguins on the roof, swung it. The Hagglund ride is included in your ticket and takes you for a ten minute ride in an all terrain amphibious Antarctic vehicle through an outdoor adventure course. Put your seatbelt on tightly you really need it as you descend into water at 45 degrees.
You get a timed ticket for an Antarctic “storm” you wear overshoes and a warm jacket and wait nervously for it to get colder, darker and windier.
The wind chill machines make the temperature drop to -18 and you keep your head down until it dies down. Great fun when you know it is only going to last a few minutes.
After this excitement you can visit the penguins and see them swimming underwater through a glass panel. Then watch the 4D movie Ice Voyage. This is standard stuff – moving seats, air blasts and the inevitable water spray with 3D penguin beaks in your face.
Finish your visit with something from the cafe. Plenty of choice of fresh food all standard NZ
stuff including meat pies with cheese on top – why do they do that?
