I'm 22!

Day 3 (27^th)

We had parked beside the highway in a cute rest area over the night. Bright and early we left our neighbors behind and headed for Lake Tekapo. Imagine a sea foam color mixed with turquoise and a splash of glitter. This is how the water looked. Amazing! Turns out all the lakes in south island have this color. I assume it’s just the high amounts of minerals that brighten the waters to unbelievable colors. We saw the famous church and sheep dog statue along the lake and carried on to Mt. Cook.

At the base of Mt. Cook lies Lake Pukaki. The only route possible was the scenic route which I was completely ok with!  We curled around the mountains until we were at the base of Mt. Cook which is the highest mountain in New Zealand. It surprisingly looks similar to the peak of Big Sky, Montana. We took a quick hike up to the glacier. I was surprised to find out I had seen this view before! In my suitability class at Swinburne, we studied this glacier by comparing a present day photo with a photo from the 50’s. The glacier has tremendously reduced its size. You can even see the old glacier line!

Me, Pete, Dave

Driving back we pulled over for a quick dip in the lake, aka glacier runoff. We hop in and right back out of Lake Pukaki because it was terrible cold, but still very refreshing!

Andrew, Me, Dave, Pete

Since it was my 22^nd birthday we drove on to Queenstown. We of course hit the bars attempting to get free birthday shots at every place. At our first bar we ran into all the other Melbourne folk that were road tripping through south island. It was a pleasant surprise and the rest of the night is history.