Dec. 24

Lake Tekapo to Dunedin, via Mt. Cook


It's not quite the holiday yet, and I don't quite touch it, but it's very nearly a White Christmas (Eve), or at least as close as you get here.
The day is bright and sunny, the plants brilliant green, a perfect day to be in the mountains. We walk toward New Zealand's tallest peak along an old glacier valley, far below a glacier clinging to the side of a sheer rock face topped with jagged peaks and a large snow shelf, parts of which fall off intermittently throughout the day, sending a low rumble through the valley which would be mistaken for thunder if there were any clouds in the sky.
After the second crossing of a river which provides drainage for the glacier and snow melt off Mt. Cook and it's neighbors, again on a swinging bridge, we turn a corner around another, smaller ridge and look straight up the valley to Mt. Cook. It's an impressive sight, and one of the few times I've seen the top of a mountain in NZ without waiting for it to peek through the clouds first.

Further south, Dunedin (the country's foremost university town) feels a little bit more like Christmas, because it feels considerably colder after the sun goes down. Kirsten and I decide to give in to the holiday, and attend a candlelight carol service in the center of town. Most of the carols are familiar, even if occasionally the tune is not. It's fitting for a summer Christmas - the holiday is familiar, even if the setting is not.