Tonight we are staying near the Fox Glacier, on the west coast of South Island - haven't seen it yet though as the rainclouds are really low down, and when we arrived there was lovely cool rain falling from the sky!
We picked up our campervan in Christchurch, and on Friday drove to Lake Tekapo, a beautiful blue lake in the middle of the island. A long drive across the very flat and dull Canterbury plains to the south of Christchurch, but then up into big mountains with huge views.
Saturday was a short trip slightly south, and then up the west coast of Lake Pukaki to Mount Cook village, at the foot of Mount Cook. At 3,754m above sea level this is New Zealand's highest mountain and has lots of snow and blue ice on even now, at the end of a very hot dry summer.
We walked up and over the terminal moraine of the Tasman glacier to see the lake and the toe of the glacier - not pretty! It looks like an abandoned quarry, and the ice at the lake is grey and stony. (Very windy too).
We camped just down the road from the village, so had a fab view of the mountain until the clouds rolled in. In the morning the sun was shining on the snowy top.
On Sunday after Thomas and Kitty had braved the cool, clear water of Lake Pukaki we drove a whole lot south, and then a whole lot north, to Makarora - a tiny village at the end of the spectacularly beautiful Lake Wanaka. On the way we had a quick swim in Lake Hawea.
Today, yet more driving (this is a very big island with a lot of scenery), to Fox Glacier on the west coast, over the Haast pass. On the way we stopped at Fantail Falls, where there are hundreds of stone towers built on the dry river bed (just in case you thought you were the first person to discover it, you're not!). Here's our contribution:
It rains every day at Fox Glacier as this is temperate rainforest, and it started as we arrived at 3.30pm. The cloud is still low, at 7pm, which is a change from everywhere else we've been (hot and sunny non-stop till sunset). A double rainbow appeared earlier in the field next door, with a little puffy cloud floating near the ground!
Tomorrow we'll be exploring the glacier (Fox's glacier mint, anyone?)
Vicky, Mike, Thomas and Kitty xxxx
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