New Zealand - Day 6 - Aoraki / Mt. Cook

Day 6 New Zealand
Monday, July 15, 2019

Woke at 6am this morning to be ready for the 7am pick up.  I say 6am,but my body clock still has me waking at 2am… 4am….5am… I check my phone then go back to sleep. 

Driver for my shuttle reminds me of my Grandpa Tibbs.  He was explaining to me all the big fish stories he tells the kids he drives - sheep with legs short on one side so they don't fall off hills, local kids having to run the 4 miles around the park each morning before breakfast… So I told him about my grandpa's “eat onions/pepper/spicy foods to grow hair on your chest” stories. 

Bus tour started about 7:30.  We're going to Mt Cook (Lake Town from The Hobbit).   I picked up Coffee & muffin (rhubarb & custard), also snagged a sandwich for lunch. 

Bus driver is also conducting an audio tour along the way.  They really care about the environment here in NZ! Tour content has already included global winds, crop rotation, invasive species, glacial periods, hedge growth to prevent wind erosion & minimize leaching, plate tectonics, lava types, ring of fire, and earthquakes!  Earth Science 101!

They do some brilliant farmland multi-use techniques here.  They use the farmland also for pastureland. Instead of harvesting for the cows, they do limited pasturing using temporary electric wiring to control position of pasturing.  This saves on energy consumed by harvesting and reduces the amount of pastureland required for the cattle. This is probably more possible because of the mild climate which allows crop growth in all seasons.  It would be doable in the US, but not at 100%.

Oh!  Bad me.  Almost forgot to mention my neighboring travelers.  Jeanne (pronounced soft J & ea = u… one syllable like the French, NOT like ‘Jean’ or ‘Je-anne’) & Jeanette visiting from Melbourne Australia.  Third traveller (Michelle) is a College student from Massachusetts - been at school in Australia since February & now making a quick trip to NZ before heading home.  She is majoring in Outdoor Education, which sounds like it. Will be the start of a wonderful career! ❤️ Of course, they're all napping now - just me awake among this little group. 

So… Apparently they are farming deer here now…. And milking them. No idea how that works. 

Pinus radiata from California is the common pine tree here. Thank you invasive species. 🌲

Riding through the widest plains in New Zealand (Canterbury Plains).  Will need to research the geology of that later. Curious if it. Is due to land sediments or if it was uplifted ocean basins. Alluvial fans - sediment deposits from the Southern Alps by interlaced rivers

Lake Tekapo stop - panoramic view is magnificent!  Snow caps above the tree lines keep getting larger, which means the elevations are much higher at the peaks.  

Small chapel near the rocky beach. Rocks at the beach appear to be sedimentary.  Also seems to be the full beach, not rocks brought in to prevent erosion. Samples appear to have a granular sandstone appearance for some and possibly mixed in with limestone, which indicates marine uplift.  Bus driver indicates this is a natural lake formed from glacial melt & prior glacier movement (18-15k years ago). 

Rock deposits from glacial activity are called Glacial Drift.  The Terminal Moraine is the wall of these rock deposits that are left behind when an advancing glacier begins to melt. 

Also near the beach is a thorn hedge - reminiscent of the story from Thornbirds, if you're familiar with that book/ TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain. 

DarkSky Project Astronomical observatory also here by lake. Will probably be talking more about Astronomy later - plan to do a nighttime stargazing this evening.  We have such light pollution and Atmospheric haze from emissions that it is hard to get good sky views anywhere on the east coast. Even the darkest areas of Virginia will have more interference than what will be here. Driver says we can see at least 50 million stars here on a clear night.  Aurora Australis may also be visible.  [except it rained tonight - so, no stars]

Man made canals link lake system here in valley (hydro scheme). Salmon farming is an aquaculture industry here.  We're stopping at a shop that sells fresh, frozen, and smoked. I am sooooo getting some smoked local salmon. Doubt I would have a way to cook fresh/frozen at the hotel.

The lakes here contain finely ground glacial flour, which is sediment of clay fineness that blows away easily. 

Canals connecting lakes help with generating electric power.  When operating fully the hydroelectric power here generates 25% of the electricity for the nation of New Zealand. 

Just stopped at the Mt Cook Salmon Shop at the base of Lake Pulaski.  They have fresh, frozen and smoked salmon. I got. Some smoked, but they had sashimi grade salmon 2 pks for $10….and that is New Zealand dollars! Am going to have the best dinner ever!  ❤️❤️❤️

Truncated spurs indicate height of the glacier as it was scraping the rock & sediments from the sides of the mountains. 

Omg…. I am staying THERE for two nights?! Nope. Just one night. Still. OMG!

RED TARNS HIKE
- have to go down before I can go up.

Arrived at about 12, now it's a little after 2 and I'm getting started on the hike. Took a little while to get my bearings. Picked up some Merino gloves, knowing that not having gloves for the waterfall hike later would be a mistake. Also got some advice suggestions on which hike to take, so that I could get the best appreciation for this magnificent view. Plus not waste my time on the tiny little paid late one. Want to explore and there's not enough to do on a 30-minute hike.

Time to step out the front door, Frodo!

Wow halfway up the Red Tarns I can see some amazing glacial excavation!  Wild they're is still a small glacier Park way down the mountain that obviously used to complete the track, it's nowhere near what glacier created the lateral and terminal Marines but I can see in the valley here. If you look carefully, you can see cliff that are parallel to each other in the picture that are at the base of the goalie where the glacier is currently retrieving. That Gorge used to be filled with ice. Actually, these entire mountains used to be filled with ice, but through many periods of advance and retreat deposit we're left in various locations that have created the valleys and Lake that we can see today in the other pictures.

These additional escarpment can show where the glacier cut through the mountain, and have left them over hangs at the top where vegetation still hold it together, but erosion has caused rocked fall off and sediment underneath. These jagged pieces of rock getting pumped together and cement it at the bottom or what I will be telling my earth science class about next year is one of the ways in which the sedimentary rock, breccia, is created.

Thank goodness, I think I'm almost at the top of this climb! hahaha! 

OMG that's a I was wrong before, but now I can see the platform that is the terminus of this insanity!

Dammit! I was wrong again. Just one more set of steps…. I'm sure of it. 

Apparently I was supposed to bring a Viking stone with me.

My "How Glaciers Destroy and Create Rock" Video

Okay, did my little recording, hopefully he will see it.. it the quarter till for the I really need to get down this Mountain so I'm not stuck up here when it gets dark. Fortunately I have a backup plan. There are flashlight and UV light in my backpack so, I will not die UPS here tonight.

Also noticed the dark sediments?... That's basaltic volcanic.

Chaparral type plant community in higher altitudes transitions into hardwood deciduous mixed with conifers lower down.  This climb does not reach a hard cutoff for plant life we usually call the tree line, but larger trees definitely hit a cutoff point. 

Recognize that archway of trees… Almost there.  Takes ⅓ time to make it back down. Steep climb, but not a long trek.  Make significant elevation gains. Met no people on the trail either direction. 

I suppose what really surprises me, is the absolute lack of commercialization on the mountain. Yes, there's a village at the bottom and and there's a couple of hotels nestled in one of the corners part way up, but it's not very high up and it there is no ski lift or skiing going on on any of these mountaintop. They are pristine and untouched, except for maybe someone that might be hiking up somewhere. But I see no one at the top of these mountains. Or maybe I'm the idiot cause I'm the only one doing any hiking at this time of day and these conditions. Although yesterday's conditions in Arthur's pass were much much worse.

Look at the abrupt shift from flat plain into Grand Mountain. The only other place I've seen search traumatic lefty growth of a stone structure out of a flat piece of earth was Salisbury Cathedral. You judge who makes the greater house of worship…, God or man?

This popped up when I got to the bottom of the mountain. Think it is metamorphic. Looks like foliation with breaks in the rock so the liquid quartz shot through vertical cracks as well.

The key to hiking... Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Eventually you'll get where you're going.

Bed & dinner.  Think PJs are in order…. Just missing the wine. But wait… I have chocolate!  All is good. 

Lots & lots of blogging to do.... ggaaaaaahhhhh!!!!