Wed. 2 Mar. A leisurely breakfast and then we pack up and head out for our drive up through the center of the South Island to Aoraki Mt. Cook, the highest peak in the country at 12,360 feet. It is a long drive mainly across a vast plain ringed with mountains. Many, many sheep, almost no people, towns or other cars. We arrive late afternoon after skirting several lakes and one very long, wide river that had been dammed. The Hermitage is a massive resort at the foot of Aoraki Mt. Cook, with a 10 story building, and has three restaurants, shops and the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre (movies, exhibits, lectures). A small village in itself, which is important as there is no other settlement nearby. There are other motels and campgrounds scattered across the plain at the base of the mountain range. Our room is on the 10th floor with a spectacular view right across to the mountains, at the centre of which is Aoraki Mt. Cook. It is raining lightly as we arrive and clouds obscure the tops of the mountains. Later it clears and we see glaciers across other mountains, though the Tasman Glacier on Aoraki Mt. Cook (which is our destination for tomorrow) can't be seen as it is behind another mountain. We had a buffet dinner at the Alpine Restaurant, after having a drink in the bar to use their wifi (the big hotels here tend to not have wifi in the rooms, just downstairs, presumably to get you to spend money on drinks).

Thurs. 3 Mar. Disaster strikes again. We are doomed not to set foot on a glacier on this trip. Our plane ride, which was to take us up to the glacier for a brief hike, has been cancelled due to high winds. Otherwise it is a clear, sunny day but cold, so we opted instead to take a 4WD ride up to the foot of the Tasman glacier. Graham is our guide, and it's only Robin and me. We hop into a standard 4WD, and head out around one of the mountains and over unpaved roads to the beginning of the Tasman Glacier lake. There, we get out of the land cruiser and into an 8WD vehicle called the Argo, made in Canada. I've never heard of such a vehicle, though Robin had. Eight very fat tires, plus two bench seats with no sides or roof to the vehicle, and the front windscreen folded down flat. We drive down a road that was not only unpaved, but more like a dry, rocky stream bed—full of gravel and larger stones and rocks—this vehicle just roared over everything (and through all the puddles we encountered—up to a foot deep). I imagine it's a bit like riding a bronco, bumpy and great fun, though I did wonder a few times whether I might not find myself hurled from the vehicle. Graham knew all the tricks with his vehicle and was in complete control, so I relaxed after a few minutes and just enjoyed the ride and the amazing scenery. Our objective was reached a ways down the road. We stopped and got out and climbed the hill (more gravel and rocks from glacial movements over the millennia). At the top, it was fairly windy, and in front of us was the Tasman Glacier base lake. It is 6K by 2K, with a number of massive icebergs scattered across it (we were reminded that 9/10 of an iceberg is below the water's surface). The icebergs were not just white—some had a beautiful turquoise blue tinge, others were dark gray/brown from the rocks embedded in the ice. And the shapes were very geometric, sharp angles and corners. They may split apart at any time so are quite dangerous. At the far end of the lake was a sheer wall of ice, which is the base of the glacier and extends underwater for 200 meters. It also extends upward for several kilometres, and up and around the side of a cliff of Aoraki Mt. Cook. Graham explained quite a bit of the geology behind glaciers, and showed us how much greater, by many times, was the area covered by the glacier, centuries ago. The Tasman glacier, which is the largest in the country, is much more extensive, and quite different in shape, than I had pictured. Graham also told us about the wildlife and some of the flora that we saw. It was a fascinating 90 minutes, and somewhat made up for the disappointment of not being able to go up in the plane and onto the glacier itself.

After lunch, we went for a walk which took us over a suspension bridge (with gale force winds, it took all my courage to cross, as it swayed quite wildly) and along a fairly uneven trail, to a rushing river that was so powerful it produced a fine mist that was carried hundreds of feet in the air by the high winds. It was real exercise for 1 ½ hours as we were battling the winds the whole time. Invigorating! Back to the hotel to pack and have dinner, our last in NZ.