SNOW

This trip just keeps getting better.  After saying our goodbyes we traveled south beside Lake Wakatipu and I began to suspect those low clouds held more than just rain.  Yes we came across snow in the paddocks and on the hills.  This shot is of the Garston Hotel.  I learned this area was another place where gold was discovered in 1861.  I was surprised a mining company operated here until 1943 and produced 65,000 ounces of alluvial gold.  I have only thought of this area as a wide farming valley but today with the snow on the steep sided mountains I could see it was a landscape formed by ice.  The glaciers flowed southwards from the Southern Alps forming Lake Wakatipu and continuing to this area.  The glacier ice above Garston was thought to be 300meters thick.  
Tonight we are in luxury accommodation in Te Anau.  What a fantastic day.