New Zealand: Day 23
January 25, 2013
The day began much as yesterday ended: deeply overcast skies with a low cloud ceiling. In fact, the cloud ceiling seemed to be even lower than yesterday. Temperatures were chilly in the low 60s. However, later in the morning the sun burned off the cloud cover, revealing a gloriously clear blue sky with barely any clouds present at all. Temperatures rose to a comfortable low 70s and remained there for the rest of the day.
This morning, before leaving the lovely Hermitage Hotel, we took a boat ride on Lake Tasman to get an up-close view of the Tasman Glacier (the very glacier a smaller group of us had walked upon yesterday). One of the first things our guide had us do was put our hands in the water and hold them there for ten seconds. In a mere ten seconds my hands were numb. The guide stated that this was exactly the point of the little exercise: to emphasize the importance of maintaining safety during the boat tour and to ensure that we did nothing to cause us to fall out of the boat. The water was two degrees C -- barely above the freezing point. If we were to fall into the water, hypothermia would set in within ten seconds. He made his point in the most dramatic way possible short of actually dunking us in the water. Even a wet suit would have been inadequate in such cold water
Yesterday I was bemoaning the poor weather I had been encountering on this trip. At first, today looked like it would be more of the same. However, during the 20-minute hike from the "car park" (I love this term much better than "parking lot"), the clouds began teasingly parting and showing us glimpses of the mountain peaks surrounding us. A few minutes into the boating venture on Lake Tasman, the strip tease was completed, the cloud cover was gone, and Mt. Cook could be seen in all its awesome glory. Yes! This is what I had traveled to New Zealand to see. My camera began working almost non-stop as I sought to capture the beauty of Mt. Cook and the surrounding range. I even managed to take a single shot of Mt. Cook reflected in the waters of Lake Tasman. I also used my iPad to make a few images.
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The guide took us to some of the icebergs floating in Lake Tasman and described their natural history. Aside from the well known fact that only the top 10% of an iceberg floats above the water line while the remainder is beneath the surface, we learned interesting details about the life cycle of a melting iceberg, about how it flips and rotates as its surface melts. Icebergs are incredibly dense as are the glaciers from which they are formed. The guide told us ice from an iceberg takes six times as long to melt as a piece of regular ice the same size that had not been subjected to the intense compressing forces of a glacier. The denser parts have an incredible blue, almost indigo shade. I have included a single image I took with the iPad. The iceberg is "dirty" because that is the nature of glaciers: they consume debris as they advance, so of course this debris would be present in an iceberg as well.
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We advanced as close to the terminus of the glacier as was safe. Unfortunately we did not see any icebergs fall from the glacier, but we could hear the cracking sounds the glacier made. The top of the glacier looks extremely dirty with rocks and debris. This is the result of the melting and retreating glacier. It had picked up rocks and other debris as it advanced, and now, as it was melting, dying in a sense, the rocks and debris were what was left behind. We could see on the smooth walls surrounding Lake Tasman -- the former boundaries of Tasman Glacier. I wanted global warming denialists to see this scene. What was no longer present greatly exceeded what remained of Tasman Glacier.
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After our adventure on Lake Tasman was over, we returned to the Hermitage Hotel for a final visit before getting on the road for our last destination on the coach tour: Christchurch. Now that the cloud cover had lifted, I wondered what the view from my room should have looked like. I persuaded the desk clerk to allow me to return to my room to take a final set of photographs. Wow! If I had been able to look upon this vista of snow-capped mountains with Mt. Cook in view, you would not have read a whining account from yesterday. It would have been from a perspective of awestruck amazement. A copy of the "corrected" view from my room is appended below.
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As we drove on towards Christchurch, I kept looking backwards so that I could take in the view I had been denied yesterday. It was a grand vista. Sir Edmund Hilary had used these mountains as training grounds in preparation for his ascent of Mt. Everest. This seemed suitable. We made a brief stop at the Chapel of St. Gertrude. The Chapel is unique in that it is consecrated by the Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian sects. Another factor making the Chapel unique is its absence of stained glass. Instead, behind the altar, is a plate glass window with a view of Mt. Cook and its sisters. What an appropriate way to celebrate the works of creation, I thought. No stained glass could do better than nature itself.
We arrived in Christchurch in late afternoon. We took a brief tour of the downtown areas of the city as the driver pointed out the devastation caused by the earthquake that hit the city a few years ago. Some buildings were so damaged they were beyond repair and had been razed to the ground. Others were still in the process of being repaired. A particularly sad sight was the Catholic church that looked like a giant had ripped off sections of the building. The driver explained that areas effected by the earthquake had been "red zoned" and people were not allowed to re-enter these areas except under special circumstances. The luggage of hotel guests remained where they had been prior to the earthquake. Even meals were left, partially eaten, just as they were at the moment the earthquake occurred and people rushed to safety.
Dinner tonight was our final meal together. Breakfast tomorrow morning would mark the formal conclusion of the coach tour. It was not a sad occasion, but, rather, a joyful and ebullient one. We celebrated having spent the past three weeks and two days together, sharing adventures as well as dashed expectations. We were not quite family, but we had become more than mere acquaintances. I made a point of saying an individual good-bye to each member of the group, giving them two copies of my personalized "Get Out of Hell Free" cards (the cards include a notation that "Your salvation courtesy of Nick Nicholas"), one with my email address and location of my web site, and a clean one they could give to someone else they felt might need one.
After dinner, some, reluctant to say good-bye, lingered in the hotel lounge and continued chatting. I had some errands to attend to, including drying last night's laundry (I had fallen asleep while doing laundry at the Hermitage Hotel, and failed to get my washed clothes into the dryer by the time the laundry room was locked at 10pm; the staff had graciously unlocked the door and allowed me to retrieve my wet clothes), and I joined the small group later. I realized even though I had known these people only a short period of time, I would miss them after we separated.
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Last revised: August 27, 2015.
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