Stop No. 6: Lake Mahinapua & Franz Josef Glacier

When we traveled by bus to the south of the west coast of New Zealand, our first stop was the Lake Mahinapua, located near the town of Ruatapu. The lake, which was originally a lagoon, is about 500m away from the Tasman Sea and has been a reserve since 1907 to preserve the land around the lake. By the way, there are 775 lakes in New Zealand that are at least 500m long, with the largest one being Lake Taupo (where I did my skydive) with an area of over 600m²!

Before we arrived at this stop, we gradually got to know the 'core' of our bus, i.e. the people taking the same route. We all became a great community over time and spent the following evenings together. Three German girls in particular took Miral and me to their hearts, and even though our paths diverged in the south of New Zealand, we are sure that we will meet again in Germany :)

The next day, we continued to the 10km long Franz Josef Glacier, located on the western side of the New Zealand Alps. Franz Josef was formed by the convergence of the tectonic plates along the west coast, which is also the reason for the earthquakes in New Zealand. More than 100,000 years ago, the glacier was so huge that it encompassed all the surrounding mountains! However, today it has shrunk because it is a temperate glacier that flows half a meter per day! This is due to the many waterfalls that amplify this flow speed, so in a few years, the glacier will no longer be as we saw it on that day - according to calculations, it will lose about 40% of its mass by the end of this century!

Despite this somewhat sad story, we were able to enjoy the view of the glacier on our first day here, and the weather was on our side. We were super happy to take a short hike through the national park around the glacier later in the afternoon, as it poured rain the entire following day and all tours were canceled. However, this gave us the opportunity to catch up on some sleep and spend the day in bed in the beautiful bungalows (and not on the bus) ;) There was a great homemade Sunday breakfast with pancakes and everything that goes with it, and a nice evening in the accommodation's bar.