As I mentioned in our last Travel Photo Of The Week post, New Zealand looks like the world may have looked thousands of years ago. This weeks travel photo is a prime example of that. We took a hop on, hop off bus tour of the entire country and one of the stops the bus let us see where these awesome vivid blue pools while driving though the Haast Pass in the South Island.
The driver told us there would be some very beautiful blue glacial water pools coming up, but we had no idea of the vibrancy to expect. These pools are about a 15 minutes round trip walk off the road and well worth the visit. We were told that the blue of the water is caused by the almost microscopic rock particles and debris that the glaciers scrape up as they move along the valley floor which are then carried by the glacial streams and rivers. This debris reflects the sun and gives off the vibrant blue color you can see in the picture.
The water in New Zealand is amazingly clean and clear, and even drinkable right from the river in a couple places. Some of the glacial water has been frozen for a couple thousand years or more, so again, you are able to see the earth as it might have been a couple thousand years ago.
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Photo taken using Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical [IF]
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