What In Tarn-Nation?

Viewing the mountains in New Zealand's South Island is a lesson in glacial formations. The most obvious type of formation on our Key Summit hike was the tarn. What is a tarn? "Tarn: an alpine lake formed in a depression carved out by a formed glacier, e.g. Lake Marian" as stated on the plaque on glacial formations near the summit.

Here is Jenny's nice zoom shot of Lake Marian tucked in a hanging valley across the Hollyford Valley from us.

But we didn't just see tarns at a distance. We got up-close and personal with several on this hike, like this one with the Humboldt Mountains and Hollyford Valley in the background:

And this one:

And this little one overgrown by some of the local alpine flora:

And speaking of the local alpine flora, here is another plaque along the track to the summit describing some of the unique features of these alpine bog wetlands: