The Blog Entry with No Title

Day 8: Aoraki/Mount Cook

This blog entry has no name because we could not find any words to describe what we saw today. We woke up in the morning to a spectacular view of huge snow-capped mountains outside our window. After dealing with a minor gas snafu, we drove over to a trail we wanted to walk. The drive itself was gorgeous, on a gravel road with tremendous mountains flanking us on every side. Everywhere we looked, there it was again – the awe. Actually, awe may not be a fair word to use – there may be no word to describe everything we were seeing. It was so unbelievable, we could barely even explain it to each other (especially with our jaws open) – but we both felt it!

We headed up the first of four trails, and reached the top of one mountain. There, we saw it: the Tasman Glacier – the largest glacier in the Southern hemisphere (aside from the Antarctic). Actually, not only did we see it, we were standing on a glacier! Now, it’s not what one would expect – the one we were standing on had about 1-2 meters of rock on it, below which was pure and solid glacier. The one in front of us, however, looked as one would think a glacier would: white and blue and snowy and icy! Nevertheless, there we were, on a glacier looking at a glacier. And if that wasn’t enough, we turned to our right and saw ICEBERGS floating in the Tasman Lake at the base of the glacier! Umm, yeah. Glaciers and icebergs. Surreal. Awe. Besides explaining it in the poor words we’ve chosen, we cannot express the feeling of standing there, experiencing all of that. It is something one must see for themselves to understand, and we still feel so unbelievably fortunate to have had this opportunity.

What was interesting to learn was that since the glacier is melting, the Tasman Lake is actually a new lake – about 20 years old. And about 100 years ago, the glacier we were on was much much higher than it was today. And in years to come, this will all look different again. Just crazy, and particularly saddening that this beauty could one day be lost (but it could give birth to new beauty!).

So after this (as if this experience could be beat), we went down to another trail, which took us to a few small lakes, which had somewhat frozen over like the Tasman Lake. Again, just more and more beauty.

Then, we headed to a third trail, which took us down to the bottom of the mountain/glacier to the Tasman Lake. There, we were even closer to the icebergs, and they were so huge! We couldn’t believe it again! We just kept getting wowed over and over again. Can you imagine the feeling of standing on a glacier looking out at icebergs? It just shifts your perspective. We were so small standing there, and there was no way for us to feel big. It was impossible. The feeling of being so small compared to all this grandeur was so beautiful, so welcome. I hope we will carry that feeling with us for a long time to come.

Finally, we cut across to the fourth and final trail of our day. We didn’t know what to expect until we reached the end and were standing face to face with the icebergs in the Tasman Lake, with water rushing out to the Tasman River right by our side. Awe. And since we were there, no rock in the world could stop us from making our way almost out onto the water to touch one of the glaciers (one of the smaller ones that was closest to us, of course). Awe. Awe. Awe.

We had thought that the trails and views that Monique and Myles had shown us in the North Island would be hard to match, but there we were, matching them. Though different in every way, the trails we have been on have all been so utterly inspiring that we are only able to use faded words like “beautiful” and “spectacular” and “breathtaking” to describe them because when it comes right down to it, there are no words in any language to explain this feeling. And that’s ok.

After our treks, which took us about 3-4 hrs, we drove our way down towards Queenstown. On the way, more gorgeous scenery and… more sheep! We passed through the Lindis Pass, which was a very narrow road that passed through a heavily mountainous area, with the mountains almost touching the road, they were so close! We were completely surrounded and just when we didn’t think it was possible to feel more, in the reserve wells of our heart, we found even more awe.

We made it to Queenstown in the evening and in our desperate attempt to make hotel reservations for the next two nights, we bought fries at McDonalds just to get their “free” 30-minute wireless internet connection. Right at the 28-minute mark, we booked our hotel through a US website since they were a day behind us (yup, very very last minute)! Ha New Zealand time zone! We can time travel! 

We dropped our stuff off, went to town to grab some dinner, and then came back and relaxed in our room. We don’t know what the next few days will hold, but we are sure it will be spectacular. It always is. 

The road to the Tasman Glacier

 

The Tasman Glacier

The Icebergs (to gain perspective, find the yellow boat)