Tasman Glacier just in front of Mt. Cook in record setting heat for the NZ summer. That’s where we drove back to from the ShearVue farm. That’s after Bonnie got up at the crack of dawn to hike with our hostess, Julie, up the hills surrounding the farm. Julie is in training for her next “tramp”. Tramp is a Kiwi term for a long hike, usually on a well groomed trail (trek) through some wonderful part of NZ. So Julie was wearing a large backpack, Bonnie wore her Fitbit. She earned her breakfast by taking 3,700 steps, steep steps at that, before she showered. That was just the beginning.
After a fine farm breakfast, including a special appearance of Marmite for Joel and a Kiwi language lesson where we learned that dentist sounds a lot like “deans test” we headed back towards Mt. Cook for our main activity of the day.
Along the road at a stop for coffee and restrooms, we got to experience the latest in Kiwi public restroom technology. The newest ones involve pushing a lighted button to enter, a recorded greeting informing you of your allotted time (10 minutes) followed by a Muzak interlude, mine was the theme from Mahogany, auto water from the sink, auto air dryer all in stainless steel fittings, a button to get out. Progress?!
Anyway we got to the activity desk to sign in for our next Kiwi adventure. Rafting, actually in a boat, in the lake formed by the melting Tasman Glacier amidst icebergs formed when the glacier calves some of the ice into the lake. It was epic, someone was humming the theme from Titantic….
On the drive home we came across a rare mirror image of Mt. Cook on Lake Pukaki. We had to turnaround, pull off the side of the road, climb a hill and take this….
A couple more stops to Mt. Brown, with a short climb to the observatory and back home for animals and dinner. Bonnie ended an epic day with 15,000 steps. Last night in NZ.