Mount Cook

This morning, we were excited to get up because we were headed to Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. We had scheduled a tour after lunch, but we wanted to head up early so that we could check out some of the mountain views beforehand. The mountain range is called the Southern Alps, as it resembles the Alps of Switerzland. Sadly, as we drove up into the mountains, we could hardly see them because the clouds were too low. We found out that the mountain is covered by clouds one out of every three days. When we arrived, we decided to take a hike to a couple of suspension bridges and hoped to get a better view. The bridges crossed a glacial river, so the water was a very pretty shade of blue. It was a chilly morning because of the cloud coverage and the cold water running off of the mountains.

By the end of our hike, the clouds were starting to lift and we could finally see parts of Mount Cook! We were very excited, and it was definitely worth the wait!

Mount Cook is in the background. The clouds are almost entirely cleared, but the views only got better.

After this, we headed off to our Glacial Lake tour on Tasman Lake, which runs off of the largest glacier in New Zealand. The glacier rests on Mount Cook and has melted down enough to form Tasman Lake, which is only possible because the glacier rests in a horizontal position, which leaves no where for all of the water to go. The lake is about two degrees Celsius, which is warmer than the glacier and actually causes it to melt faster than it would without the lake. There are several icebergs in the lake, which we got to experience. It was amazing! We went on a boat ride around the lake, took a LOT of pictures, and learned about the icebergs and glaciers.

Grant is licking a piece of ice from one of the icebergs. I didn't try it, but the consensus was that it tasted "cold." Others said that it tasted dirty, as icebergs have suspended dirt and debris frozen into them.

This part of the iceberg just surfaced today. If you look closely, you can see that it is still a blue-ish color.

If you went to look at the same iceberg tomorrow, it would no longer be blue. Once the surface of the iceberg hits the light of the sun, it turns the iceberg white, like snow. Over time, the outer layer of the iceberg melts away, revealing all of the trapped dirt and debris, which is a brown or black color. Eventually, the iceberg will melt away enough that it needs to "settle" and it will flip around in the water, revealing a new blue-ish piece of ice.

Posing in front of the glacier. This is where Tasman Lake originates. The glacier is the flat, dirty looking sheet that you see right above our heads. It looks dirty because of the trapped dirt and debris. The icebergs break off of the part that you can see.

As you can probably tell, we very much enjoyed this boat tour. It was definitely an up close and personal way to learn about glaciers and icebergs. We have many more pictures, but the internet it too slow to post them all.

I was exhausted on our drive to Queenstown. We stopped a couple of times to get another look at the mountain and to check out a river in the Kawarau Gorge. The last hour of the drive was breathtaking, as we were driving through the mountain gorge.

We ended our night by eating out at Fergburger. It was recommended to us by several people and is in the Lonely Planet, so we had to give it a try...and it definitely lived up to it's hype! The sauce on it was a tomato relish, and it was amazing! Even the fries were delectable. I don't know how you can make a burger and fries so different, but this place was excellent! The burgers were HUGE, too, and we were hungry enough to eat every last bite. Yum!

Tomorrow, we have an early morning and a long day because we are touring Doubtful Sound. It is the tour that we have been anticipating the most, so we have high expectations!

Love, the George family