Mother Earth and Father Sky are wrenched apart each morning, bringing the sunrise. I’ve decided this is the most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen in my life. Fox glacier is in the V-shaped valley between the peaks. We were a group of happy phone camera users, pouring out of the bus on the way to breakfast when we realized the show that had to be seen in open morning air.
Lake Matheson is a very pretty lake with a well groomed trail around it. There are many, many enchanting view points. When the water is still and Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman are not in the clouds, they reflect on the water. For most of our walk we did not have a perfectly clear view, but the walk was beautiful nevertheless.
We had a long afternoon on the bus. It did include a picnic at Ship Cove beach: salmon, with sandflies at no extra charge! That was ok; I ate on my feet to keep moving, and this is always welcome on long travel days. The shore was pebbly.
Our destination today was Wanaka, on Lake Wanaka. To reach it, we crossed from the west side of the Southern Alps to the east side via Haast Pass (1,844 ft). Now that we are on the east side, the landscape is not nearly as green. The Southern Alps create a rain shadow, with the west received fifteen feet of rain per year compared to a few feet in the east.
Leaving you with a photo of koru, the fiddlehead of a tree fern, that the Māori use as a symbol of new life.
