Had an adventure this afternoon. Took a boat to see some icebergs and the Tasman Glacier.
The weather cleared up, but it was windy. The guide would make a decision about taking the boat out, once we got down to the water. The walk took about 20 minutes to get to the lake from the carpark.
The Tasman Lake. The water is 3 degrees C. The weird milky colour is created by the tiny rock particles that have been ground down by the glacial ice.
The wind had died down a little, however the water was still quite choppy. The moraine bank on either side of the Tasman Lake is about 300 metres high. I think this is Mt Biretta.
Anorak/Mt Cook with no clouds to pierce. Tasman Glacier at the end of the lake
I was really excited to see the peaks of Aoraki / Mt Cook. No clouds.
An IceBerg. The blues were astonishingly beautiful
Tight with some glacier ice from the ice-berg. The ice berg melts quickly in the warm wind.
The Tasman Glacier is melting at 30 cms a day. The lake has tripled in size in the past 10 years. In 30 years time, there will be no more Tasman Glacier. The climate is warming up, and so the ice melts.
The turquoise of the ice really captured my imagination.
I also got to hold some ice from the glacier's ice-berg.
Ice-berg on Lake Tasman, with Aoraki/Mt Cook in the distance.
A rock stuck in the ice-berg. Probably been there for thousands of years.
More ice from the ice-berg. The clarity of the water and the colours are amazing.
Before we travel to the glacier, our guide gives us a talk about why we will be at least 1 km away from the glacier. Just in case it calves an ice berg, and we would have to ride the wave.
The Tasman Glacier with Novara Peak (2298 m). The Glacier is grey, except for the edge touching the lake, where it has calved ice-bergs.
So many different blues.
Novara Peak and the Tasman Glacier.
This wall of ice is about 100m high. It looks tiny, but we were over a kilometre away
The boat criss crossed from one side of the lake to the other, so we could see the rawness of the ice and the wonder of the glacier.
On the way back to shore and the jetty, the mountain range towered alongside us. The cliffs were dramatic and steep.
I could imagine a monastery built on top of this range.
Walking back to the carpark, we could see this waterfall in the distance.
We have a room with a view at the Alpine Lodge. We are all quite tired, and glad to have a hot drink
Aoraki / Mt Cook from the bedroom window.
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