Woke up to another sunny day, cloud still on the tops of the mountain but there is hope.... (Many people have warned me that you don't get to see the top of mt cook very often which is why it's Maori name means 'cloud piercer'. We took a boat tour on lake Tasman the glacial lake formed at the front of the Tasman glacier, NZ largest. The boat hit an iceberg floating in the lake but no damage done and the girls got to eat some 300 year old ice! The tour was very different to the one taken by my mum 5 years ago as the large icebergs have disappeared and so you aren't allowed to climb onto one anymore. The glacier has also retreated 1.5km in those years. At the current rate of shrinking there won't be much of a glacier left to see if the girls come back with their kids. All morning the weather improved so we were rewarded with clear views of Mt Cook.
We started our drive towards Christchurch stopping at an observatory for a great view of beautiful blue glacial lakes. Then stopped for the big pack up and clean up.......