Scenic Flight Over Lake Pukaki

Traveling to Mt. Cook Village in the South Island of New Zealand, I drove by Lake Pukaki.  How many shades does mother earth have of blue?  I call the color of Lake Pukaki Blue Ice.  I looked up the color "Blue Ice" and here is an explanation.



Blue ice occurs when snow falls on a glacier, is compressed, and becomes part of the glacier. Air bubbles are squeezed out and ice crystals enlarge, making the ice appear blue.

On the scenic flight, we flew over Mt. Cook, Tasman Glacier and Fox Glacier.  Lake Pukaki is the largest of three parallel alpine lakes running north-south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin.  The glacial feed to the lakes gives them a distinctive blue color, created by glacial flour, the extremely finely ground rock particles from the glaciers.