The weather was calmer by morning, so we took a hike out to the Tasman Glacier. It's New Zealand's largest glacier and it's receding pretty quickly. Thirty five years ago there was no lake and today the glacier has melted and formed the lake you can see in this photo. They predict the glacier will melt completely within the 20 years. We will just have to come back in 2030 and take another photo.
Where's the glacier?
Icebergs in the lake.
Leaving Mt. Cook National Park. View of Mt. Cook from across Lake Pukaki (I just had to get the name in there one more time).
We had one more night in New Zealand, so we drove north towards Christchurch. We planned to stay the night in Lake Tekapo, but thought better of it once we got into town. It was kind of a dive and the most appealing attraction was the hot springs. It was quite hot that day and neither of us felt like soaking in a hot bath, so we decided to mush on.
Actual color of Lake Tekapo! The color is the result of 'glacial flour,' which is sediment that flows in from the glacial run-off.
Lake Tekapo's tribute to the sheepdogs that helped develop the region.
Mackenzie Country was hot and dry. As soon as we drove over the mountain pass just northeast of Lake Tekapo, it was cold and rainy again. We were trying to make it to Christchurch in time for dinner and to find a room for the night. The country we were driving through was so pretty that we decided to take a detour to Peel Forest to see the big podocarps (trees).
Cuddles at the base of the giant totara. It was 9 m in diameter.
Can you find Roxy in the totara roots?
We made it to Christchurch that night, but had to stop for dinner (pub grub) in a small town on the way. Day 9 was definitely a very long day.
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