February 17 Wednesday
We were told last night that it was supposed to rain this morning, but fortunately the forecast was wrong and it was just cloudy. After breakfast and checking out of the YHA, we drove up Tasman Valley Road to the parking lot at the base of the terminal moraine. From there we hiked the road and trail to the site of the former Ball Hut. The skies opened a bit and we got good views of the Tasman Glacier where it is joined by Murchison Glacier on the left. At the end of the trail we spoke with a local who told us that there used to be a road up to Ball Hut. As the glacier has shrunk, the moraine has become unstable swallowing whatever was on the ledges. In the pictures, the lower part of the glacier is covered with rock rubble. Periodically we heard rocks dropping into openings in the glacier below us. We ate lunch and walked back to the car; we got some rain for the last 20 minutes. Since it was raining, we decided to head east and drove to Oamaru on the east coast. The hostels were full so we carried on to Waianakarua and got a double room at the Olive Grove. Nice large room with showers and toilets in a separate building.
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