Mount Cook Tour, Except Mount Cook

Today’s adventure in Christchurch was a full-day tour, starting at 7:30 in the morning and not getting back until 8:00 in the evening. In truth, it only started and ended in Christchurch. Ironically, the online description listed it as a “Mount Cook” tour. I say ironically because the only item on the list of tour activities that didn’t happen was views of Mount Cook.

That wasn’t the tour guide/driver’s fault. When we got to the few different viewing points, clouds completely obscured Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. The guide pointed in its direction a few times from a few different points. He promised us it was there. But all we saw of Mount Cook was the clouds in front of it, i.e., none of it.

The tour started with a long drive through primarily flat farmland. But the views out the windows, and at the stops past that, made up for the boring flatland and the lack of a Mount Cook sighting. After the farmland, we travelled through rolling hills. Then we passed by higher foothills. Finally, we saw snowcapped Southern Alps—although, as aforementioned, not the highest of them all, Mount Cook.

Tasman Glacier; Not Mount Cook

The stops included the shores of two different glacier-fed lakes, Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. Both were beautiful.

We also took about a 20-minute hike up some stairs to get a look at the Tasman Glacier. According to a sign at the viewing point for the glacier, it receded two kilometres just between 1990 and 2011. According to our guide, it has receded more since then and the rate is increasing. In 40 to 50 years it’s expected to be gone completely.

We probably wouldn’t have spotted the glacier at all if our guide hadn’t shown us a picture and told us what to look for before we went up there. The glacier is on the other side of a small lake from the viewing point. The lake is almost pure white. At first, I thought it was the glacier until I saw waves on the lake. (According to our guide, where the lake is now was indeed a glacier 50 years ago.)

The glacier is covered with sediment, so it looks like rock. It’s only the glacier face as it meets the lake that looks like it could be a glacier.

On the way down, we took a short detour hike to a couple of the nearby small “Blue Lakes.” “Blue Lakes” is in quotes because they are green, not blue. When they were named, they were glacier-fed. The water was then too cold and nutrient-free to grow anything. Hence they reflected the blue sky. Today, however, the glacier has receded too much to feed the lakes. Now they’re fed by warmer rainwater and have more nutrients. As a result, algae now grows in them, turning them green.

Another stop on the way back was at a lavender farm.

Oh, I forgot about at least one stop. The tour included a big buffet lunch at a hotel in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. Food is good.