This last weekend we again went to Taupo for the Lake Taupo Challenge, either a 160km round the lake cycle or an 82km mountain bike ride.





Here's Caleb and Jan Pieter in the middle of the photo awaiting the start.













Caleb and friend Mark finishing





















Jan Pieter finishing

















and recovering, with Sophie

Too much waiting at the finish line for Max!
Here is Eliza finishing her 5km heart ride with Caleb
Peter doing a slight detour
for a drink stop before completing his 10th challenge!!

The finish line for Peter!

Max and Nan hanging out watching Peter mowing lawns
and the beautiful sunset

After church a lovely walk through the bush
past Lake Rotoiti
to lunch on the deck
then to pack the car for the ferry home.

Chris and Peter ready to go the 160 kms from St Arnaud to Westport
Peter doing the hard stuff
and finishing
and out to dinner at the Alpine Lodge. Two tired men..

Our final glimpse of Mt Cook!
There are lupins beside every road in Southland!
Off to Blenheim in a one engine plane!!

Our guide suggested we take some ice back to the Hermitage for our drinks as it lasts 7 x longer than an ice cube.

The terminal face of Tasman Glacier
The moraine left behind by the former huge glacier

A glacial iceberg! Up close its compacted ice crystals.

We also made a trip to Mt Cook where we went on the Tasman glacial lake which has formed in front of the terminal face of the Tasman Glacier.
Kitted up with life jackets for the trip on the lake.
The first view of the lake, complete with icebergs, bits of glacier which have fallen off into the lake
Amazing to see..

We went for a great walk from Lake Wanaka along the Clutha River to Albert Town. It was stunningly picturesque. It was a long walk and we could have done with a jet boat ride back!!

We went on a big trip to Fox Glacier, West Coast, past big boulders fallen onto the road, where Soph and Jp did a half day walk on the glacier itself.
Peter and I walked around Lake Matheson, then walked to the terminal face of the glacier. Quite awe inspiring!