slivka.com - Trips - New Zealand 2002

slivka.com > Trips > New Zealand 2002 > Wed Jan-01

Wed

Jan-01

Tasman Glacier ski-plane landing, Tasman Valley hike
New Years Day! We got up, had a light breakfast, and then drove the five minutes to the Mount Cook Airport, where we boarded a Mount Cook Skiplanes plane for a splendid 40 minute flight over the glaciers and Mount Cook, including a landing on the Tasman Glacier where we got out and walked around and the kids threw snow at each other. It has been unseasonably warm (the high was 36 degrees Celsius = 96.8 degrees Farenheit!), so the snow was a bit mushy. It had snowed and rained over Christmas, so we were very fortunate to have such sunny, warm weather!

We drove back to The Hermitage, picked up a small picnic lunch, and drove the 8km of the Tasman Valley Road, parked, ate our lunch in the shelter building, and then hiked to Tasman Glacier Lake, which was thick with rock flour and a few icebergs. We returned to the hotel, read and played, and then had dinner at the Panorama again, this time enjoying a 1998 La Strada Fromm Vineyard Pinot Noir. At 14.5% alcohol, it was quite hot for a pinot, and it was so oaky that it was difficult to discern the fruit. It would have been interesting to have tasted it five years hence.