ICEBERG.

Aoraki Day 1

The day started off with the family waking up at 8 45 breakfast, coffee procured in Twizel, and we got to the Aoraki village centre at around 10 00. Then we decided to go to in and explore the Aoraki Visitors Centre. It's a museum of sorts and we learnt many things including that over 100 people have died on the mountain. There was everything from what the first climbers wore to how to know when an avalanche is coming. After a packed lunch in a mildly sketchy spot. we got in and checked ourselves in to the iceberg experience. 

After looking at the overpriced snacks and souvenirs, we got our lanyards and got ready for the bus to take us on the iceberg experience. The bus was filled with laughter and facts about the scenery around us. After we got off the bus we walked 45 minutes to the jetty. 

On the way we saw Wakefield Falls. It's 230m tall.
We got to the jetty and put our bags away and put on life jackets. we were in a group of 11, 12 including Tom the guide. We had 2 groups of four and 1 group of 3. The group of three was a family on holiday from shanghai. (The capital of China is not Shanghai but Beijing) One of the group of four was from America They were from Tennessee and Florida. Seeing as three of the four were attorneys you would expected one of them to have listening ears and common sense. We were the last group of four. 
We got in the boat and started speeding through Tasman Lake. Our guide Tom was giving us a safety briefing on what to do incase of emergency. then he joked about polar bears, one of there Americans had a response of concern saying "Are there really polar bears?" Mum was quick to say noooooo!

(boring Mum here)
We went around looking at the icebergs and learning about glaciers and how they work. It was awesome. And the scenery was AMAZING.
The lake itself is very cloudy, filled with very fine rock particles in a suspension. But the icebergs are the clearest ice you've ever seen.
Only 10%  of an iceberg is seen above the water.
 This is a pretty big iceberg, but what it looked like in the water was really small.
The icebergs and the lake is a dynamic system, with Tom noting how different it looks day to day and even tour to tour. The ice above the water melts at a faster rate than the stuff under the water, so the weight redistributes all the time, causing the iceberg to tilt or roll or rise.
On the bus ride back mum and dad started talking to the Americans (like adults do). One of the boys refused to put his seatbelt on the other boy insisted that he put it on. One of the boys snapped and pushed the other boy into the glass. Dad was not happy and yelled at both boys. 

Mum decided that she would be nice and order the other boy a drink called "chocolate brown super shake." But it turns out it was not gf and the brown was short for brownies, one of the boys had some and got sick. After dad cooled off he came back (and got a free, but expensive milkshake that he didn't ask for). Some apologies were exchanged and we realised that the other boy had gone. Lots of phone calls later we worked out that the other boy had gone on a walk up a mountain. 

On the drive back home we stopped off in Twizel to get some essentials at the local 4 square. We realised there were in fact two of them in town McKenzie and Twizel stores, we shopped at one, and then the other og one since it had a better gf bread selection. Once we had arrived back home we found out our tv only has one channel we can access. The night ended with dinner, a movie, a plan for tomorrow and an alarm set for an early morning
-the end 

-one of the boys signing off for now 

  




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