New Zealand Glaciers

The glaciers in New Zealand are just spectacular.  We spent two days of our trip exploring glaciers.  Our first was Cook glacier.  It is at the head of Lake Pukaki, and on the day we visited the skies were clear and the water in Lake Pukaki was an amazing glacier melt blue. We drove past it the next day and it was shrouded in clouds. 

We drove to the end of the road near the Cook glacier, but didn't actually get to it.  Instead we went up the Hooker Valley a short way and took the Hooker Valley Glacier track.

It involved crossing another swing bridge and it was a very windy day, so I am not letting go of the bridge.

But the view was worth the walk.

Then we went down another valley to see the Tasman valley glacier. After a climb up a large number of steps we were rewarded with this view of the melting edge of the glacier under the very small red arrow. This glacial lake is a little muddier because it gets mud and rock dropped by the glacier as it melts.

We visited another set of glaciers after out Milford track hike.  I was not in the mood to do a lot more hiking after that, but the 10 KM walk around the Rob Roy glacier sounded like it would be OK.  We drove down a beautiful River valley toward the Mt. Avalanche glacier which was another beauty.

We had to make 7 creek crossings on a dirt road to get to the Rob Roy trail head. The trail was fine for the first kilometer.

We wandered along a grassy meadow on a flat trail.  Then we got to the beginning of the actual trail.

And we proceeded to climb up the hill behind me.  It was three kilometers to the first lookout, which provided all that I really wanted to see of the Rob Roy glacier.

Calvin went to the second look out another kilometer up hill, so this is what he saw.

I like this picture of Calvin at the Matukituki River bridge, but

 I'm not exactly sure where the bridge was.  Some where in the Mt. Aspiring National Park

And we still missed a lot of glaciers in New Zealand!