Across the street from RNZAF's and USAF's Antarctic launch bases in Christchurch is the Antarctic Center. I did'nt have super high hopes for it, but it was better than I thought and worth a good 3-4H in the end.
NZ is indeed not that far from the antarctic:
You could get a ride in Hagglung, the all terrain carriers they use there. They can handle quite rough terrain
Of course, they had penguins:
Another room was the cold/wind chill room:
brr...
Other misc stuff, including movies:
two kinds of planes to get there, 5 to 8H trip due to the lack of real jet runway on the ice
Christchurch's Canterbury Museum has a very good central museum with multiple sections all worth seeing.
The section on Mauri started with their early lives:
sadly they hunted the Moa to extinction
They had a very nice section on their sacred stone, the Kura Pounamu:
One corner had a nice section on a house filled with pretty shells:
Another section showed the old streets:
The 2nd floor talked about the antarctic expeditions that have been launched from NZ's Christchurch:
Other random sections:
the Kakapo, the world's biggest parrot, is quite cute
All it all, it was worth a good 4H, and was well worth a good donation (entrance is free)
