Up at 6 am today to make sure we arrived at Mt. Cook National Park in time for a boat trip to a glacier. Opted not the take the ‘scenic route’ and instead took the main Route 1 for the first part of the drive; still pretty scenic though, just not so many bends in the road! Would have liked to stop at Lake Tekapo which looked like another beautiful lake, and stopped at just one viewing point alongside Lake Pukaki (see above) to take this photo of Mount Cook.
Once at the Hermitage Centre at Mt. Cook, we had just enough time check in and it was off on the Glacier Explorers trip; a short bus ride, a 20 min walk, then too long on a boat as the wind gusted on the Tasman Glacier lake.
We drove up to a small iceberg and the clarity of the ice was remarkable; I have no photos though as the boat was going up and down far too much for my liking! Then we turnein d the other direction and headed for the tongue of the Tasman glacier, as shown above. We didn’t stay on the water too long because it was getting a bit rough, and the guide had spotted a whirlpool starting in the middle of the lake. I was very happy to get back onto solid land again.
Our room had the best ‘view’ of any hotel we have ever stayed in:
And, as the sun was setting, Mt. Cook positively glowed:
Now, this evening we were supposed to be viewing the stars, but the bad weather put an end to that. So, the next two photos just illustrate how the weather changes from one day to the next, and how you must take a photo whenever you can because waiting another day may mean the view is lost to you forever.
« Day 21: Christchurch’s Antarctic Centre