We woke to an early morning alarm, did a quick fast walk, and then threw things in the car for a 4-hour drive and one-night stay down south near Mount Cook and the Tasman Glacier. First after today's drive and the accumulated others, I must say that I have had enough of driving! I cannot get excited about driving to another destination - anywhere!! No more.

Breathe deep, breathe deep.

Yes, however, in spite of all the driving required, Mt. Cook and the bus ride, boat ride out to the glaciers was unbelievable. Everyone should make a similar trip. It's mind-blowing to watch icebergs that became frozen several hundred years ago melting before your very eyes. I simply do not know how to describe the feeling of awe.

The first thing we saw as we approached Mt. Cook was the strange but lovely, eerie blue lake, Lake Pukaki which was formed by the moving and melting Tasman Glacier. It is fed as well by the hanging glaciers clinging to the upper parts of Mt. Cook. The color is a mysterious shade/tint of aqua. First, it is milky, fully laden with rock-flour as they call it. Rock flour is formed as the gray-colored sandstone is raked and scraped along the earth's surfaces by the glaciers until the stone becomes meal- or flour-like. Then the flour-substance left becomes suspended in the melted glacier water until the water in the lake becomes white. Milky-blue. All rivers/streams we have seen are lined with gray rock from the mountain, not brown.

Driving just a short distance on, we saw mountainous landscapes that compare to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, skirted by glaciers made 600 years ago and lakes that formed only 40-50 years ago.

We boarded a bus at Mt. Cook Park, drove toward the mountain and then hiked in to the lake. Then, we boarded a boat to see and touch the building-sized icebergs chunked off the Tasman Glacier and floating on the lake formed by the melting waters. Fortunately for us but a bit sad for Mother Nature, a huge chunk of glacier fell off the glacier's face last Friday. As a result, the lake was filled with icebergs from the chunk - a rare sight around here. The hunk of ice you see above the water's surface is only 10% of the whole; the other 90% is below the water's surface. When the iceberg begins to melt on the surface too much, the iceberg will roll and adjust itself so that it is again, 10% on top; 90% below the water's surface. And, the more blue the color of the iceberg, the newer it is. It will become more and more white-colored as it is exposed to air. As I said a moment ago, this day was completely mind-blowing.

Sorry, folks, we took a zillion pictures. We culled about a half-zillion. You will have to wade through the other half.