River deep, mountain high...

I’ve decided I have a very devious husband!
Ok, I should have known that anyway, and to a large extent I do. However, the extent of his previous deviousness has been exceeded 10 fold this holiday. Let me explain. When we were planning the trip, we decided that Ron needed a nice new digital camera to do the scenery justice. No problem, that was his birthday present for Jan 09. Along with the camera came a good case, as it would have a very long way to travel. I suggested getting a rucksack type camera bag, where the camera and lenses are in the bottom, the top compartment being available for other things. “Oh no”, says Ron, “I only need the small case, just for the lenses and camera itself”. So dutifully I get him the case he has chosen.
Why is this devious? Well, when we go out for the day, guess who’s got the back pack with her camera, our lunch, 2 water bottles, sunscreen, bug spray, hats , sunglasses and sometimes the laptop as well? And guess who’s only carrying his camera? You have it in one! Hmmm, I think Father Christmas might have to do something about that!!
Anyway, back to the rivers and mountains! Same mountain as yesterday, but a lot closer as we were in Mt Cook Village today. Rivers? Rivers of ice! I’d really wanted to see glaciers –we had planned to get to the west coast and see either Fox or Franz Joseph – but the driving to get there would be ridiculous if we are to fit in everything else we want to do. So we decided to ‘do’ the Tasman glacier instead, by boat.
It was another first for both of us as we saw icebergs – loads of them. They were enormous and, being fresh water, only 10% is above the waterline! They keep breaking off the face of the lowest part of the glacier, and float off into the glacial lake where they very gradually melt away. The ice in the glacier is the deepest turquoise blue you can imagine – because the snow at the top of the glacier gets so compressed that there is no air in it at all and the ice becomes very dense indeed – if you put a piece of iceberg ice in your whiskey, it would take 10 times as long to melt as ordinary ice – according to the guide, it’s a good excuse to keep topping up the whiskey!
Philias was getting restless again – waiting for all these silly people to put on life jackets, so he jumped into the boat and picked his seat – unfortunately it was the one meant for the driver! When we told him he couldn’t sit there, he decided he’d try driving instead – bears!
We were able to get close enough to touch the icebergs – their crystal structure changes once the compacted ice is exposed to air, and the most beautiful patterns form in them. They also become very brittle, so you can easily break off pieces of the ice – as it’s so pure, it’s also safe to drink. Imagine drinking 300 year old snow – that’s what we did this morning. Before anyone asks, it was NOT yellow snow!
After lunch we decided to explore the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine exhibition. As M’s always been fascinated by mountains (Everest in particular – she must have read “The Ascent of Everest about 5 times”!) so this was really rather a “must”. Sir Edmund is a real hero to New Zealanders and the Nepalese people, not surprisingly; the exhibition was really good and informative. Part of it was as you would expect a museum to be, part very different – a Planetarium showing 3 different presentations and a 3D cinema showing highlights of the Mt Cook Mountains.
So, off again tomorrow – need to be really as there’s “not a lot” here and the foods getting very low. (I’d be very worried if the food was getting very high) ok, thee and me both, but you know what I mean...or do you want to have plain pasta for tea tomorrow?
Off to Wanaka and another beautiful lake on our way to Te Anau, where we need to be by Tuesday evening..we have a special boat to catch on Wednesday for a 2 day cruise on Doubtful Sound.