"Explore Tasman Lake Icebergs on Guided Boat Trip" Top 5 Page for this destination Mount Cook National Park Things to Do Tip by Kakapo2

As you can imagine everybody wants to profit from tourists spending lots of money in their holiday mood. So new operators are shooting up by the day, offering new and of course absolutely exciting adventures ;-) One of these is Glacier Explorers who offer boat trips in the iceberg world of Tasman Lake. To make you believe that you get a lot of excitement for your money the first thing they do is to add all possible delays to the duration of the trip. To be clear: From the 3 hour trip you spend about 1 hour on the water.

The trip starts at the Hermitage Hotel where you have to check in 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time. From there you are transported to the carpark of Tasman Lake by minibus. From there you have to walk down to the lake (this takes about 20 to 25 minutes). You get life jackets and final instructions until the yellow boats arrive.

Even if you only watch the boats from the shore you get an impression of how huge those not really that huge looking icebergs are. The boats look like tiny toys, and you can be sure to be impressed and amazed and speechless by the sheer size of those rocks of ice. (Would just not be so funny if one turned over while you are close… ;-)

You will be less than impressed by the cost of this unique experience. NZ$ 120 for adults, $ 60 for children (5 to 14 years).

The tours only go from 1 October until 31 May, as the lake can freeze over in winter. Daily departures are at 8.30am, 10am, 12pm and 2pm.

Be prepared that trips are cancelled in bad weather conditions.

About 50 years ago Tasman Lake did not exist yet. Global warming and fast melting of Tasman Glacier has created the lake under the terminal face. The lake is rapidly growing. The phenonemon of the lots of icebergs floating on the water has only started some years ago when the terminal face of the Tasman Glacier changed from just a normally melting to calving and melting. The huge rocky lateral moraines on which you can walk around the lake were created by the retreating glacier, so you can imagine how much bigger and longer it was not too long ago.

Address: Mt. Cook Village, Hermitage Hotel
othercontact: info@glacierexplorers.co.nz
Phone: 0800 68 68 00 and (03) 435 1641
Website: http://www.glacierexplorers.com/glacier/