Buffy Bunny’s Icy Adventure

Buffy was cold. So very, very cold. 

After his last two attempts to catch a plane had ended in confusion, Buffy had decided that he would try travelling by ship. He travelled back down to the very bottom of New Zealand and boarded the first ship he found. He had thought New Zealand was the coldest place on earth, turns out he was wrong.

Buffy wandered up onto the deck of the ship, tugging his scarf and jacket tighter as he glanced up at the blue sky. How could a sky that looked so beautiful and sunny be somewhere so very, very cold? He shivered all the way from the tips of his ears to his big, furry feet. 

“Attention. We are about to land in Ross Bay.” came a voice over the ship’s speakers. Buffy looked over the side of the ship at the glittering Southern Ocean. There were bits of ice floating along beside the ship. He could see some animals in the water too. Some penguins he thought, and possibly dolphins. As he watched, he saw a big white and black shape splash up and out of the ocean, and then fall back into the icy water with a giant splash.

“Oh, that’s an orca!” Buffy said excitedly. But being all by himself, there was no one else to enjoy his excitement at seeing one of these amazing animals. 

The ship landed and Buffy disembarked. The other passengers all headed off in one direction, but Buffy stayed back on the dock. He didn’t want to just sit around in a hotel or on the ship. He wanted to get out and explore this incredible continent! He stood there on the dock, trying to decide what was the best thing to do when he heard a voice call out behind him.

“Well hello there, are you lost?” 

Buffy turned around and almost fell over his own feet. There, standing in front of him, was another bunny! Her fur was long and fluffy, shining a brilliant white in the sunlight. She was wearing a silvery scarf with grey snow boots.

“He...hello” stammered Buffy. The bunny smiled at him.

“Hello. My name is Lily. What’s your name?” she asked.

“I’m Buffy. And I guess you could say I was lost,” he replied with a giggle. Buffy explained to Lily all about how he had tried to go on an Easter holiday and instead had ended up on a strange and surprising trip around the world. Lily shook her head in disbelief.

“So you see, I am lost really. I don’t even know where I am right now.”

“Oh Buffy, it sounds like you have had quite an adventure. Could you not guess where you might be?” Lily asked.

“Well, there is lots of ice and snow. But I was just in New Zealand and I did see ice and snow there. The only place I know is close is Australia but they don’t get much snow,” Buffy said. Lily smiled.

“No, it’s not Australia. There are some places there that get snow, but definitely not as much as we get here. This is Antarctica, and you are standing in one of the remotest places in the entire world. It really is funny that you managed to come here by accident.” she said. “Why don’t you come with me and we will get you warmed up by the fire with some nice hot food?”

Buffy followed Lily back to her home. It was really more a lab than a house. It had science equipment all over the place, with a little kitchen and a couple of rooms off the side. Lily, as it turned out, was a scientist, and she was down in Antarctica studying the animals and the weather. After they had eaten, Lily invited Buffy to stay at the research station until the next ship arrived.

“You could be here for a while,” she explained, “as we don’t get too many ships coming through,” Buffy replied that he would like that very much, and thanked Lily for her offer.

The next few weeks for Buffy were some of the best in his life. Lily took Buffy out to explore. She taught him about the different things she was learning, like about penguins and seals. They spent their days exploring the ice and snow. One night they camped out under the stars, and Buffy barely got any sleep as he spent most of the night watching shooting stars streak across the sky. He could see more stars in the sky above Antarctica than any place in the world he had visited. Lily explained that was because most places in the world suffered from light pollution. The lights from cities washed out the sky, making it too hard to see the stars. But in Antarctica, there was practically no light pollution, which meant they could see the stars much better, including seeing the Milky Way stretching across the sky. They went kayaking in the freezing water, and Buffy almost tipped his kayak over when a humpback whale breached the water right next to him. Lily tried to convince Buffy to go skiing, but he had already tried that once before and didn’t fancy trying it again. Instead, he sat sipping hot chocolate while Lily carved up the snowy slopes. They spent a lot of time hanging out with penguins while Lily gathered the information for her research.

Lily and Buffy became very close friends. Towards the end of Buffy’s stay, they climbed up the side of Mount Erebus, which Lily explained was the southernmost active volcano in the world. As Buffy stood on the side of the volcano, looking out over the shimmering water of Ross Bay, at the shining white of the ice and snow, he felt like he was standing on the edge of the world.

“It’s so beautiful here,” Buffy said softly. Lily looked at Buffy with a big smile on her face.

“It has been so fun having you here with me Buffy, I’m going to be lonely when you leave,” she said. Buffy thought about his journey so far. He had enjoyed Easter Island and New Zealand, but Antarctica had been the most fun. Not because of all of the amazing things he had gotten to do, but because he had had a friend to share his adventure with.

“Well,” Buffy began slowly, “you know, Lily, you could always…..possibly….maybe….if you wanted to….come with me?” He kept staring out at the ocean, he didn’t want to look at Lily just in case she said no. 

“Buffy, I would love to come adventuring with you!” Lily said. “If you can wait a couple more weeks I can get this lot of research done and then we can catch a plane. We can travel the world together and then maybe you could show me around where you live.” Buffy turned and smiled at Lily.

“Good, we will have lots of fun,” he said. As they sat watching the sun slowly slip down through the sky and paint the ocean with red and orange and pink, Lily reached out and took Buffy’s hand. Buffy didn’t know where they would end up next, but he knew that it would be twice as fun with his new friend by his side.