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  • Day 10

    Day 10 Glentanner

    March 3, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We woke up this morning around 7 and pulled the blinds open in the van to a beautiful clear view of the sun reflecting off of snow and glaciers of the peaks we couldn't see when we arrived last night. It was a bit breezy but not to cold, and clear skies so we were excited to start our day so we could get a little more up close and personal with Mt. Cook. We had our normal breakfast and ran out of gas to warm water for coffee and tea (which has been the normal time for us to run out of butane). Luckily we had another bottle to get our needed morning caffeine.

    We drove our van out of the camp site to the day park area where we started our Hooker Valley Hike. There were a couple glacial lakes we passed on the way, which were a milky, muddy color as the big sediment hadn't settled out yet. Later in as they drain into Lake Pukaki the water is a brilliant blue color as the big sediment is gone and just the fine glacial rock flour is left. We crossed a few swing bridges and started to get glimpses of Mt Cook in all it's sunny glory. The hike ended at Hooker Lake which had a few icebergs floating in it. The clouds hadn't completely burnt off yet but the skies were clear enough for some photos and good views. We headed back to the car for our lunch if sandwiches (again). It was about 8 miles round trip.

    At this point we were unsure of what to do next, as the other hikes we tentatively had planned weren't going to be any better than what we had just done. And one of them involved 2200 steps. We decided to head to The Hermitage (hotel/visitor center) to find an adventure. The kayak tours of Tasman Lake only left at 9am so we got stuck with the boat tour. We paid another $20 to get into the museum to kill some time. Sir Edmund Hilary was a bad ass, first person to summit Everest(highest point), visit the South Pole (most southerly point) and the North Pole (most northerly point) among many other things.

    We then boarded the tour bus for our ride to the Tasman Glacier. On our tour was a giant group of asians, a newly wed Asian couple (whom we had seen at the blowholes with her in her veil and he in a suit jacket), and lots of older white people. We got to the site and we're given a lecture about not walking too slowly or else you would be forced to return to the bus. We boarded our boat with Pancho (a guy from Mexico with an American accent and kiwi words) our captain. The water ranges from 3-7 degrees Celsius in the first three feet and then 0.03c under that. The lake was 240 meters deep at its deepest and about 5km long and 2km wide. We saw cool icebergs, 10% above water, 90% below, they are constantly turning and changing. We got to within 500m of the terminal face, and he said the terminal face was 12 stories high (it didn't look like that). The part of the glacier under the lake was 200 meter thick and extended at least 150 meters out from the terminal face. This is where icebergs 3-5 foot ball fields break off and explode to the surface. Eventually causing 3-4 meter high waves in the shallower parts of the lake. We then returned back to the museum and watched a cool movie about search and rescue in the mt cook area.

    We tried to use the public showers in town but they were about 5 people waiting so we went to the DOC campground again figuring we would try in the morning. That campground was like a Walmart parking lot and Chad didn't think he could handle all of that tonight so we drove down the road a bit. We found Glenntanner Holiday Park which has offered us peaceful and better views of Mt Cook than we would have had in Mt Cook village. We are very happy with that decision.
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