Mt. Aspiring from Above

We finally approached Mount Aspiring only to be met with a wall of clouds.






Fresh snow in a few places on the peaks.



I loved all the really jagged peaks and spires.



We got close enough to catch a few of the glaciers coming down the face of the mountain.

They had amazing textures and patterns and just a hint of the beautiful blue hue.

The glaciers looked like they were suspended and clinging to the sheer cliffs.

Beautiful!

We even caught sight of a very faint rainbow.

Lots of twisting & turning, bumps and rolls with all the turbulence made it hard to get a level photo sometimes.

Not only is the snow fall cool, it makes the most fascinating patterns and designs on the peaks.

Although we didn't technically get to see the peak of Mt. Aspiring, the helicopter ride around it was amazing nonetheless. Plus we got to stop and walk around an amazing lake (coming tomorrow!).

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'm so happy the people of New Zealand are so proactive and protective of their beautiful environment.

Wanaka Valley Heliflight

The next day, we headed back to Wanaka Helicopters to see if we the weather would cooperate enough for us to take a heli-flight. It wasn't perfect weather, but we decided to go for it anyway. H had the back seat to himself...
....and this was my awesome view up next to the pilot for our Mt. Aspiring Circle Trip.
The airport is quite a few miles outside of town, so we got the scenic view of the valley back towards the lake.
Flying along the Cardrona River was quite beautiful.
As we approached Lake Wanaka, much of the land in this area was very dry & desert like.
I'd really like to live next to a beautiful blue and green river...
Lined with trees & a few little rolling hills.
I imagine there is some good fly fishing in this river among these rocks.
We caught site of the Rippon Vineyard again.

I loved this cool little peninsula in the middle of the lake. I'd put my house there if I could!

On the far side of the lake, we started flying over the Matukituki River and though a broad valley.
The mountains rising straight up near the water's edge made for stunning scenery.

Supposedly Mt. Aspiring is up there in those clouds....
Such unique and striking landscape formations everywhere we turned.
It's an amazing vertical drop from the river bed to the nearby mountain peeks.
We finally are getting closer, but still seeing lots of clouds.
A few of the mountains had received a recent dusting of snow mid-summer.



Certain slopes and side of mountains were greener from the way the weather would drop rain and moisture on them. GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Well, now officially 3 trips behind on blogging- another 5 days in New Zealand, Washington State & Pennsylvania.

Outside Burlington

While up in the Northeast a few weeks back, we were based out of Burlington, VT. It's quite a quaint little town & we really enjoyed hanging out in the college town. My downtown photos came out pretty bleh, but I took some good ones across the river in New York.



We had to wait for the ferry (such a strange concept to me!) & so we grabbed dinner at the above restaurant and were treated to a very cool early evening rainbow.



The ferry wasn't too busy- we just parked our car in line, walked over & enjoyed a nice dinner on Lake Champlain.



Although it was mid-May, the summer ferry in the center of the lake wasn't running yet.



These are the infamous Adirondacks! They'd been on my list of places to check out & I finally was able to see them. We spent a few hours driving around & I'll have those photos posted probably sometime this year.



Flying out of Burlington, I got some great shots of Lake Champlain- there are all sorts of coves and inlets along the shoreline.



These tiny islands were so cute...I wonder if anybody owns them. I wonder if they ever get flooded. I wonder if the lake freezes over in the winter. So many questions & no answers!



The Adirondacks looked so pretty with all its green trees and foothills.



We even flew over the tiny little ferry port & dock house restaurant where we had dinner.



This is the gorgeous sunset from my hotel room in Burlington. It's a hippie college town & they have a very nice pedestrian walkway with shops, restaurants, bars and art galleries for browsing.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: No more work travel for 2 weeks!

Desert around Vegas

Getting to Utah last week, we flew into Vegas, cut through a corner of Arizona before driving the full state south to north. As usual, flying into Vegas, the scenery is always beautiful!



I love how the lakes winds between the mountains and the different color layers in the rocks.



No boats out on the lake today.



A big swath of rocks had a beautiful red coloring to them.



This area of Earth here looked like it had been crinkled and wrinkled in such a supernatural way.



The (west?) end of the lake had these finger-like valley areas and some funky coloring to the crevasses.



Here is the big mountain just outside the city proper. Gotta love the way airplane windows distort the images.



One little oasis of a river with a bit of greenery.



Viva Las Vegas! (Sorry- couldn't resist)



This was about as much as I saw of the town, we hopped on I-15 and headed North.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: It's Friday & we're going camping with friends!