Yesterday we drove south from Christchurch to Mount Cook, the drive  took around 4 hours but was broken up with a stop at Lake Tekapo and a hotel inspection (I have to do a bit of work on this trip.)

Whilst the coach journey's are long the landscape is beautiful and the driver's keep us fully informed as to what we can see. This is the bonus of a tour over a self drive trip.

This morning we did a 'Freedom of Choice' excursion, Glacial Explorers and it was one of the most breath taking experiences of my life. The Tasman Glacier is New Zealand's largest glacier and flows along the Mt Cook range before terminating at the Tasman Lake.



We hiked up to the lake and then travelled in a zodiac up to the glacier's edge. The lake has icebergs floating in it and the colours and feel of the ice were amazing. The ice in these icebergs is around 300 years old but now that it has broken off the iceberg it will be melted in a matter of months.



The terminal of the glacier is about 30 metres in height above the lake and you can only sail to about 300m away in case any ice cracks off it. The site of it was awe inspiring. My degree was in geography so I have studied glaciers and obviously have seen them on TV but to actually see one was something else. I didn't have a glacier on my bucket list, it wasn't really something I had thought about outside of my studies but this has been the highlight of my trip so far and if a glacier isn't on your bucket list, it certainly should be.