Since my visit to Antarctica last year I have been fascinated by all things related to the Great White Continent.
The International Antarctic Centre is the home of the US, Italian and New Zealand Antarctic Programmes. Although South America is closer to Antarctica at 1000 km, New Zealand is the second closest at 3832 km and the place from where 70% of researchers and scientists depart. At the centre I take an audio guide narrated by Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Everest. The centre has an Antarctic simulated storm that takes place every hour in a snow and ice chamber. The room temperature starts at -5 degrees Celsius and builds up a wind chill factor of -18 degrees Celsius with the storm 'peaking' at 40 km per hour.
I'm reminded of what an extraordinary place Antarctica is - the coldest, driest, windiest and highest place on earth. The coldest temperature ever recorded was minus 89 degrees Celsius at the Russian base Vostok. It also holds 90% of the world's ice providing 70% of the world's freshwater. If the ice sheet melted completely, the sea would rise 60 metres flooding many coastal cities.
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