November 24, 2022

November 24, 2022

When we awoke this morning at Mt. Cook National Park, we could see a little more mountain outside our window, but it was still drizzling. We checked out of our Hermitage Hotel room, and went to the car to find some snow had fallen on it overnight. The auto temperature was just above freezing.

Before leaving the park we drove down Tasman Valley Road for one last hike. At road's end we hiked the short trail over the terminal moraine to an overlook for Blue Lakes. These three lakes no longer get much glacier melt water so algae is turning them green. We continued on to a view of Tasman Glacier and the large melt lake below it. All four of the glaciers we saw or tried to see recently descend from the same Mt. Cook massif.

Although it is still raining, looking down the valley we can see sunshine. That probably shouldn’t be too surprising as the east is the drier part of New Zealand. The mountains capture the clouds and wring out the moisture. We work our way back down the length of Lake Pukaki. At the southern end of the lake we stop at two public parks for photos. The scenery is gorgeous with the iridescent blue lake water against snow-capped mountains. One spot has a statue of a Himalayan Tahr, which is some kind of rare Nepalese Mountain Goat that was introduced here for hunting.

We stopped in the nearby town of Twizel for an early lunch of Thai food. Twizel started life as a temporary housing camp for workers building the Waitaki Power System. A cascading series of eight hydroelectric dams were built along the Waitaki River as it descends from the mountains to the sea. They provide 20% of New Zealand’s Power. We decided to follow the Waitaki Hydro Heritage Trail south to learn more about this energy generation system.

Along the way we stopped at a Salmon Farm that uses the cold lake water to raise these fish in large pens. A retail store is also attached. We had a good time watching some kids feed them by tossing pellets into the water and watching the fish compete with a duck for the morsels.

The first couple hydroelectric lakes are set amongst steep dry hills that look like the ones we often pass through in New Mexico. At Benmore Dam, we stop and stretch our legs along the Benmore Peninsula Track.

The lower elevation lakes are lined by rolling hills with some exposed limestone bluffs. We stop at Takiroa to see some crude Maori rock paintings in an overhang. The South Island was too cold for the Maori. They came mainly to hunt Moa and search for Greenstone. Nearby we visit Elephant Rocks which are some limestone boulders that have been weathered out of a small valley.

We finished our drive at the ocean town of Oamaru. We checked into our motel and then went down to the harbor front. Our motel clerk said we could probably see Blue penguins there tonight as they return to their shoreline nests from a long day feeding in the ocean. Humorously we saw Penguin Crossing signs. We went to Bushy Beach to see if we could spot Yellow-Eyed penguins. After watching unsuccessfully, a volunteer told us there were only eight of these rare penguins nesting here. We decided it wasn't worth the wait. Instead we celebrate Thanksgiving with an early pizza dinner at a brewpub.