Swim in a glacial lake with visual icebergs?! If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I would never believe it.
Our last trek on a three week jaunt around New Zealand culminated at the base of the majestic Mt. Cook on the southern island. Much to our delight, we had the perfect summer day with abundant sunshine and minimal cloud cover. To see the peak of the highest point in the country is very rare and our cameras clicked away.
The Hooker Valley 7 mile round trip trail was an absolute delight with numerous suspension bridges, viewings of the glacier and lookout points to keep us yearning for more. The packed shingle (aka gravel) path was very well maintained and transported us to a glacial lake in the shadows of the stunning Mt. Cook (where Sir Edmund Hillary did much of his high altitude training prior to summiting Mt. Everest).
After savoring this masterpiece for awhile, our local guide Taz did the unthinkable by taking the cringe worthy jump into the icy waters. AYKM?!? He literally swam out to the floating iceberg and climbed atop in his bare feet.
After numerous cheers from our team and other random strangers, he had a few moments to himself to revel in the feat and truly enjoy the crazy experience prior to delaying the inevitable of jumping back into the icy waters to complete the journey.
FearlessAdventures 