New Zealand Day 2: Sheep, Lakes, and Mountains

We met our tour group (above) at 8 am on Sunday. We got rolling on the tour bus, introduced ourselves, and took inventory of the different nationalities represented (British, Canadian, Danish, Swedish, South Korean, Brazilian, French, Australian, American). We heard our tour song for the first time (an old 80s New Zealand punk song), which was played many times throughout our travels so we could have a song to associate with the trip.

First we drove through really really green land that was spotted with little white dots (above). Upon closer inspection, these white dots turned out to be sheep (above), and we learned that wool is a huge industry in NZ. I saw easily 50 sheep pastures during this week. We made our first pit stop in Geraldine, home of the world’s largest sweater (above). I think I can die now that I’ve seen that. ;-)

Our first real stop was to Lake Tekapo, a lake with really blue water (above). I know the water doesn’t look very blue in my picture, I guess the cloudiness messed with the picture. All of the water that is in my pictures after this is very blue, I promise. This is because it’s glacially-fed water. Silt from the glacier washes into the lakes and rivers, and the silt reflects blue light, making the water look really blue.

Then we visited Lake Pukaki, which had that crazy blue water (above). Lake Pukaki is part of New Zealand’s hydroelectric scheme, which supplies 85% of New Zealand’s electricity (I think that figure is right, I don’t remember exactly). The red pipes are part of the hydroelectricity plan (above). One of the reservoirs around the lake gave a great reflection of the mountains surrounding it (above). Sadly, this was the only awesome reflecty picture I was able to get (more on that later). There were “crop circles” in the hills by the lake, apparently caused by a weed that grows out in a perfectly circular pattern (above).

After that we drove to Mount Cook (above), the tallest mountain in New Zealand. Its Maori name, Aoraki, translates to “cloud piercer.” To give you an idea of the scale, there’s 1.2 km between its two peaks (above, shown by the red arc), and the thick white strip of snow is about 100 meters deep (above). Mount Cook is near the biggest glacier in New Zealand, so there is glacial runoff in the area (above). The area surrounding the mountain is a great example of how glaciers shaped NZ. There was a huge plain leading up to the mountain where the glacier had previously been. Left in the plain were big boulders that the glacier had picked up and deposited during its travels (above). It was pretty cool.

We then traveled to Lake Ohau, where we stayed for the night. On the way, the sunset turned the mountains pretty colors (above). We had a great dinner catered by the hotel and then walked down to the lake to look at the stars. It was easily the most stars I’ve ever seen in my life since we were in the middle of nowhere. It was amazing.