Fogg where are you? Phileas seems to have lost her bearings as she and Fogg climb to the Red Tarns above the village of Aoraki/Mt Cook. They reprised their rendition of the Sound of Music to the tinkling of the mountain streams that gurgled down the track below them.
We spent three days in Twizel with Alan and Jude and whilst there returned to Mt Cook to explore further. This is a view of the Tasman Glacier, the largest in New Zealand. Like many glaciers it is not white and shiny but filthy with the moraine that it collects as it travels. Many glaciers in NZ are receding and in the case of this one melting. Some 30 years ago the melt was so great that a lake formed at the end of the glacier and this can be seen in the photograph with the snout of the glacier in the background.
At regular intervals pieces of glacier break off and float to the end of the lake. These icebergs were absolutely beautiful, again not snowy white but blue, green, pink depending on the light shining on them and what they contained.
Our explorations took us away from Aoraki and into the open, bleak beauty of MacKenzie country and the clay cliffs near Omarama. These monumental edifices formed over two million years by erosion stood like Gaudi's spires on La Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona.
James (Jock) MacKenzie was a sheep rustler who brought his flock to these windswept hills. For those who do not know Phileas' grandfather was John (Jock) MacKenzie hence the photo!!
Who is this scruffy person standing in a solitary fashion beside a canal (?) in MacKenzie country? It is the Fishing Fogg and oh was he good at it!!!!
Look at his catch, made almost within minutes of casting his line!! From the top, Brown Trout (4lbs); Brown Trout (8lbs); Salmon (8lbs). Unbelievable, but true and the aforementioned fish have now been either bottled or smoked by Alan to be enjoyed by him and the family for many weeks to come!!
Before we left the area we had one final visit to make to the Mt John Observatory and Astro Cafe, for a 360-degree panorama of MacKenzie Country. It was breathtaking or as described in The Lonely Planet 'insanely spectacular'. The coffee and muffins were pretty good too!!
Lake Alexandrina, in the top picture, and below it the azure blue of Lake Tekapo. The colour is caused by 'rock flour' - glacial grit which is deposited in the water giving the water a milky colour and refracting the blue from the sunlight shining down.
So, we post our last blog from New Zealand. We fly to Australia in a day or two and we are spending our final days here on the farm with Alan and Jude sorting ourselves out for the next stage of this journey. Phileas is finding it hard to even say we are leaving, we have formed a deeper love of this place and it will be hard to go.
But we are very excited about going to Australia which is where our next blog will be from. Until then, au revoir to all our readers
Phileas and Fogg
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