The fragile beauty of New Zealand’s vanishing glaciers
Touching and tasting ice crystals from a 500-year-old glacier brings home both the awe-inspiring wonder of our natural world and its fragility.
The Tasman Glacier, in New Zealand’s Aoraki Mt Cook National Park, is the country’s second-largest glacier, measuring some 27km in length.
Guided boat tours on its terminal lake are a popular tourist activity – but before 1973, there was no terminal lake. Like glaciers around the world, the Tasman is retreating, with its terminus both melting and calving off large icebergs that fill the rapidly expanding lake.
The glacier is eventually expected to disappear completely.
Mt Cook-based tour company Glacier Explorers can’t guarantee visitors will see any icebergs on the lake on one of its 2.5-hour excursions, but on our visit in December we saw several – one of which dwarfed the small boat we were in.
The tour began with a half-hour alpine walk to Tasman Lake, where everyone was handed a lifejacket and, if needed, a raincoat. It was icy, misty, cold – very cold – a little wet and completely surreal. If you half closed your eyes and let your imagination go, you might almost imagine you were on an Antarctic adventure.
Up to nine people climbed aboard each boat with a guide, who then took us across the lake, which has a milky blue-grey colour as a result of suspended finely ground sediment from the glaciers; glacial-fed lakes further south, including Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo, are an almost unbelievably iridescent turquoise blue. On the sides of the lake are large lateral moraines – deposits of soil, rock and other debris left behind by the moving glacier – reaching up to 100m high.
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If any more evidence of the glacier retreat were needed, our guide explained that for safety reasons, she could no longer get too close to the Tasman Glacier face. The sudden calving of a large chunk of ice, such as one we saw on this particular tour, could swamp a small boat. Only a month or so earlier, another iceberg had caused such huge waves that they flooded Glacier Explorers’ lake-edge base.
But we were able to pull up right next to the icebergs. Close enough to see the crystals and accumulated sediment within the hard-packed ice. Close enough to touch it. Close enough even for the guide to break off a small piece and let us taste it.
In a few days, the berg would be gone – swallowed by the lake, just as the lake is swallowing the glacier.
Tasman Lake freezes over in winter, so the boat tours run only from September to late May, but there are also plenty of other attractions and activities in the Aoraki Mt Cook National Park.
Many people visit specifically to see or attempt to climb Mt Cook, which is also known by its original Maori name of Aorangi or Aoraki (the latter being the pronunciation used by the local Ngai Tahu tribe, to whom the mountain is scared). Some guides suggest the word Aoraki means “cloud piercer”, but according to Ngai Tahu oral traditions it was in fact named after he eldest son of Rangi (the Sky) and Papatuanuku (the Earth).
At 3754m high, Aoraki Mt Cook is New Zealand’s highest peak, yet the region’s notoriously fickle weather means it is often shrouded in mist or hidden completely by clouds, leaving day trippers disappointed.
Once again, however, we were lucky, with near-perfect visibility for the entire four days of our visit and picture-postcard views of the peak from the balcony of our upper-level Hermitage hotel room in the Mt Cook Village.
There is so much to see in the park that it certainly justifies a stay of at least a couple of nights.
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In addition to the motor-boat and sea kayaking guided tours on the Tasman Lake, other organised/guided activities include four-wheel-drive tours, scenic flights, heli-skiing and star gazing. Or you can explore the alpine scenery yourself on one of the many walks, both short and long.
The three-hour Hooker Valley Walk is relatively easy for those of average fitness and leads to another of the region’s glacial lakes, with Mt Cook as its backdrop. There are several swing bridges along the way to Hooker Lake, but the spectacular mountain, glacier and river views make it well worth conquering your fear of heights.
The Kea Point Walk, which begins at the Department of Conservation Visitor Centre, is a shorter option that offers views of the Southern Alps and the Mueller Glacier lake.
There are more than 140 peaks and 72 named glaciers in the World Heritage-Listed park, and no matter what you do or where you look, the stunning alpine scenery takes your breath away.
It is devastating to know that recent research based on aerial surveys shows the Southern Alps have lost a third of their permanent snow and ice since 1977, in what scientists view as a clear sign of climate change. The losses are said to have accelerated dramatically in the past 15 years.
I have a set of tiny black and white postcards inherited from a relative which show the Fox Glacier, on the South Island’s west coast, in the 1960s, well before it, too, started retreating. It looks very different now, and in another 10 or 20 years, the Aoraki Mt Cook landscapes depicted in these photos will likely also be dramatically changed.
Visit now, before those glaciers vanish forever.
Getting there
Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is 322km from Christchurch and 264km from Queenstown in the centre of New Zealand’s South Island.
Places to stay
The Hermitage offers a range of accommodation, including hotel rooms, motels and self-contained chalets. Other options include the Mt Cook Lodge & Motels, YHA Backpackers and the Department of Conservation-run White Horse Camping Area. It is advisable to book in advance during peak periods.
Places to eat
Be warned – the Mt Cook Village has no shops, although a small selection of extravagantly priced snack foods are available from The Hermitage. So you can either BYO, if you plan on cooking, or dine at one of a number of cafés and restaurants in the village. The Hermitage’s Panorama Room is a standout fine-dining option, with mountain views and a menu highlighting local produce such as Aoraki salmon and Merino lamb. Also recommended is the Old Mountaineers’ Café Bar & Restaurant, a more rustic and affordable option that promotes organic and free-range produce.
Suzie Keen travelled to Aoraki Mt Cook National Park at her own cost.
