Mount Cook and Tasman Glacier (New Zealand Part 38)

Since the weather was finally looking good, we picked up our idea of a helicopter flight again. After learning in Oamaru that there was still a flight in the afternoon that we wanted to take, we drove there directly without stopping.

Three hours later, together with an Asian family, we were sitting in our helicopter and already taking off.

First, we flew over the Tasman Glacier, the longest glacier in New Zealand at about 22 km.

At the end, it looked rather gray due to the scree that it carries with it. But under the dark layer of stones lies a 300-meter thick layer of ice.

We landed on top of the glacier and were allowed to get out to take some photos in the snow.

The flight continued around Mount Cook. It is the highest mountain in New Zealand at 3724 meters and is covered with snow all year round.

Then we flew over the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, which we had already seen from below during our drive along the West Coast.

On the way back, we had a nice view of Lake Pukaki before landing back at our starting point.

The next morning, we hiked to the viewpoint of the Tasman Glacier once again.

There, we saw the glacier lake, which had a rather gray color due to the rock flushed into the lake by the glacier.

The "Blue Lakes" were also not very impressive, but rather green-brown. When they received their name in the mid-19th century, they were still ice blue. In the meantime, the Tasman Glacier has retreated, which is why the lakes are no longer fed by it.

After that, we hiked 10 km along the "Hooker Valley Walk". We noticed that most of the visitors seem to come from Asia at the moment. That could of course be due to the Chinese New Year next week...

The path was easy to walk and so we could enjoy the view of the mountains with snow and ice.

When we arrived at the moraine lake of the Hooker Glacier, we first took a lunch break and ate our picnic.

During that time, we almost missed the opportunity to take a photo with a large piece of ice that was washed up on the lakeshore. By the time we finished eating, some Asian visitors had already posed with it and eaten from it...

So there were only two small pieces left.

On our way, we had to cross three suspension bridges each, which led over the rivers and shook quite a bit when crossing due to the wind and the people on them.

On the way back, we passed by a lavender field by car, where we treated ourselves to an ice cream with lavender oil after the effort.

We stayed overnight in a parking lot right by Lake Pukaki, from where we had a beautiful view of the lake and the surrounding mountains.