22/12/23 Fri: Woke up
at 7am and we pumped fuel (NZD 70.3 for 24.334 litres) first before driving out
for the horse-riding activity I signed us up for: Mackenzie Alpine Horse
Trekking (mountain top) for NZD 250 each. We reached early but the horses looked
like they were all saddled up already!
Megan from the UK was
our guide and she could only take six pax at one go but there were a few more
that turned up, so she had to reject and compensate them. We wore our helmets
and I was the first to hop onto Joey before Potato got onto Monty, the calm and
“zen” gelding haha. *Joey was below Monty in pecking order apparently, but
he liked to think he’s “higher up”, hence he goes just behind Bruce, the leader
of the pack Megan was atop in the walk.*
Megan’s from the UK.
She’d been a riding instructor in Canada and then flew here to be one again. According
to Megan, Joey was the most curious and cheekiest in the group. He tried to
munch off once but I stopped him haha. He also fidgeted a lot during the trek to
Lake Tekapo and along Mt John from 10am to 12.45pm.These were
standard breds and no less than 7YOs here. Megan said they were ex-racehorses
(not flat racing), rehomed, reschooled and one can still check their race
records on New Zealand’s standard bred website using their brand numbers. *Aish
I forgot to record down Joey’s.*
At one point, we had to
wait for Megan to open the gates as we cross into private land. I kicked many
times to have Joey move to the front as he had to lead the five others behind
in for Megan to close the gate. As Megan led Bruce to the front, he tried to
bite Joey and Joey panicked and shunned to the right a bit. I was taken aback
too and everything happened too fast for me to be nervous really, but reflex
told me to hold the rein tight and stop Joey. Phew he’d stopped right after
that. *Hehe Megan praised me for the handling.*
Once we reached a high point
with Lake Tekapo as the backdrop, couples took turn to have photos taken by
Megan. *Joey kept looking away lol until Megan cued him to look back.* The
sun was pretty hot, but the breeze helped and the lake was beautiful.PotaTOHs took some
photos as we waited for other two couples to have their photos taken. After
that, we had to go down some slopes which was quite steep and scary. I told
myself to trust Joey because he knew the path better than I did… we made it!They drank some water
at the lake and after some climbs uphill again, we came to a forest walk, which
was cooling and kind of therapeutic. It was very quiet and I enjoyed the ride
there a lot, albeit I had to duck some branches on the way haha.After the hard work,
the horses were treated to buckets of hay. It was an enjoyable experience.
PotaTOHS then drove to Kohan restaurant for Japanese lunch. My teriyaki chicken
don (NZD 28) was okay but his pork katsu don (NZD 29) was much nicer.We left by 2.15pm
towards the Aoraki area and the Southern Alps! Waited at Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine
Centre for our three-hour guided boat journey on Tasman Glacier Lake (NZD 358
for two pax) that would begin at 4.45pm. There were a bunch of Taiwanese
tourists and others from the US that hopped onto the 10-minute bus shuttle with
us.After we alighted, we walked
1.5km for about 25mins to reach the lake jetty. PotaTOHs were on board one of
the six Glacier Explorers boat with one Chinese mother and son and a family of
Americans. *The grandparents sat next to Potato and the grandma “openly
flirted” with our guide Derek lol.*
Derek the Canadian was
a knowledgeable guide. *He’s humourous too… “welcome to my office” lol.* He
pointed out to us Mount Cook with three peaks, in which two could be seen from
the lake. The water was cold and when he “spun” the boat… it was fun haha.The main idea of embarking
on this expedition was to see the icebergs. Sadly, the first iceberg we saw would probably be
gone in a month. *They are supposedly 10% on surface and 90% underneath.*
Saw another one like an ice sculpture. *I wonder how the ice broke and fell
like that… nature’s amazing.*
Derek also broke part
of the iceberg to let us hold and have fun! I tasted it and it was just very refreshing
plain water haha.Saw one rotating and
trying to fine its own balance…The Tasman Glacier was probably
30m tall and 270m deep, which was probably how deep the lake was too. We could
not go too close because gGd knows how thick the glacier that extended out
beneath was…
Yet, can u imagine all
those before our eyes could be gone in 100 years’ time probably?
Derek helped everyone
take photos too. *Potato kept saying the Decathlon shades he got was the
“star buy” on this trip haha~ agree!*
Although there were not
many icebergs, it was still an informative one-hour session on the boat journey
on the Tasman Glacier Lake overall.
Sun rays were so
beautiful on our drive back to Twizel!
The Twizel Market Place
was quite happening too. We had dinner at Ministry of Works: Bar and Eatery at
8.30pm. The Hawaiian pizza (NZD 28) and six buffalo wings (NZD 16) were nice. *We
were so “cash-poor” by the end of the day that I had nothing left while he only
had NZD 8 in his wallet haha.*
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