Adventures in New Zealand & Australia: Wanaka and the Matukituki

Before I continue with my narrative, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that we had the opportunity to visit with our travel agent Shelley Ryder of New Zealand Fine Touring (free plug). We had a lovely chat in her office, interacted with the other women who work there, but had to leave her because she had plans to travel south for the Holiday.

We decided at the last minute to book a jet boat ride on the Matukituki River that took us to observe some of the peaks that rise above, like the Rob Roy Glacier and Mt. Aspire. We saw some remarkable rock formations in addition to some pastures along the river and some interesting forests that were very old indeed. The driver of the jet boat, Ben, did some interesting maneuvers as he wended his way up and down the river, including slaloming around tree branches sticking out of the water. He did one particular move that he repeated several times both up and down our journey, that was spinning the boat around so that it splashed the people in the back seat.

We went on a trek during the boat ride and that's where we took some photos and saw a glacier calf. It was one of those special moments that can only be observed by chance, and we were lucky enough to see the resulting pile of ice laying on a ledge, and to hear the ice falling.