Aoraki Mount Cook and Tasman Glacier
Trip Start
May 14, 2010
1
56
60
Trip End
Apr 13, 2011
Where I stayed
DOC Campsite: White Horse Hill
Aoraki Mount Cook National Park, South Island, New Zealand
Friday, February 18, 2011
The rain held off over night and following a hearty pancake breakfast (Nigella Lawson, thank you!) we were off up the Hooker Valley to the Hooker Lake. Small icebergs which had calved from the face of the Hooker Glacier were floating about the lake; this too is a glacier in retreat.
In the afternoon we tackled the Tasman Valley which a view to seeing Mount Cook looming in the background. It turned out to be a very short walk indeed; it was just around the corner. However, the summit was in cloud but the glacier itself was magnificent. Looking down from the glacier to the valley below you could really understand what a textbook u-shaped glacial valley should look like. We later learned that following the earthquake in Christchurch on the 22nd February 2011 a piece of ice separated from the glacier that was 30 million tonnes in weight. Hard to imagine is it not!?
