Southern Alps, New Zealand
Today we're taking a trip to New Zealand's iconic mountain range - the Southern Alps. Located on the country's South Island, they're the highest range in Australasia, and home to a variety of breathtaking natural features - pristine lakes, forests, glaciers, mountains, waterfalls, and more. Throughout the update we'll be traveling across this landscape and taking in some of the area's most impressive sights and famous natural landmarks.
As with a number of my recent updates I've been working on, custom terrain textures have been extremely important - and today you'll be seeing bits and pieces of my Southern Alps terrain mod that I've been developing over the last couple of months that's designed to cover mountains, glaciers, river valleys, meadows, hillsides and much more. Additionally, I've done some more experimenting with custom Lot editor textures and MMPs to give a new 3d perspective to two of the images in the update.
We'll start off with a trip to iconic Milford Sound - this towering fjord is filled with spectacular nature features and is one of New Zealand's most iconic destinations. The mouth of the fjord is home to Milford Sound Airport, which is where we'll be landing to explore the area.
Lake Quill and Sutherland Falls are two of the park's most famous natural landmarks and are truly spectacular from a plane ride above.
Fiordland National Park and Sutherland Falls truly turn into a winter wonderland once the snow starts falling.
Small lodges and farms on the outskirts of the park provide us a place to stay along our journey as we explore the region even more in depth.
New Zealand's Southern Alps are home to some of the world's most impressive glaciers. Here we see an aerial view of the mighty Franz Josef Glacier, one of the region's largest - but it's been shrinking rapidly over the decades due to climate change.
Nearby, braided crystal clear rivers like the Tasman River on the park's borders make for a unique sight from above.
Our trip continues on as we head north towards Lake Matheson - one of the area's most well known and famous destinations. Nestled amongst an ancient forest, the views here are quite breathtaking.
The most iconic sight of Lake Matheson however is from the water's edge, where the crystal clear lake surface perfectly reflects a backdrop of Mount Cook and the surrounding forest.
Our last destination today from the Southern Alps is New Zealand's tallest mountain - mighty Mount Cook. Standing 12,218 feet tall, it's a truly impressive summit.
Much of the Southern Alps' higher elevations above 9,800 feet are filled with heavily crevassed glaciers and ice. Here we see a typical scene near Mount Cook.
One final overview of majestic Mount Cook from above.
Don't forget to comment, like, and follow True Earth if you haven't already! 
-korver
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