We had thought about heading back to Greymouth but today was Waitangi Day – a national holiday to celebrate signing of the treaty – so again nothing would be open. We therefore headed towards the Southern Alps, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. We booked on to a Fox Glacier walk for the afternoon. Our first stop was in Franz Josef – although you kind of see the huge mountains with snowy peaks, they were mostly covered by cloud. From what we could see we were very impressed!
We headed on to the town of Fox Glacier where we found the company that we had booked our trip with. The weather had brightened up and on the advice of one of the instructors we changed into our shorts – he had been on the glacier in the morning and said that he was too warm in trousers. We joined our group and we were issued with socks, boots, crampons and a waterproof jacket – just in case. After a 10 minute bus journey we arrived at the start of the walk – the instructor – Deano - told us interesting facts about the movement of the glacier and how they can tell where the glacier had been by the types of vegetation. From bare rocks, a moss developed which enriched the soils allowing more vegetation to route. After a few decades shrubs and trees form.
The mountain ranges in this region are caused by the Pacific and Australia tectonic plates – causing very dramatic mountains raising over 3000 meters. Running from the glacier was a glacier stream which had a white/grey colour to it. We learnt that this was caused by the glacier grinding up rocks to form Rock-Flour in the water.
As we set off on our walk, the heavens opened and it pretty much rained for the rest of our walk! We didn’t want to let it spoil our enjoyment so kept our heads high and powered on! The walk to the start of the glacier took around an hour. Once there we put on our crampons (spikes on the bottom of your boots) to allow us to grip on the ice. Deano taught us how to walk properly with them on and we headed on the glacier. It was amazing to be on this fantastic and huge structure which stretched as far as the eye could see. The natural colour of the compacted ice is bright blue which contrasted with the white surface of the ice to form beautiful patterns that drew your eye.
Calved into the ice were steps to help us reach the plateaux of the glacier. Once we were there we were told that there was about 70m of ice below us – how amazing! The rain had not let up any and therefore there were streams of water running down the glacier. As the water does this it forms ‘Mulans’ which are waterfalls inside the glacier. This meant that the water suddenly disappears under the ice and drops down to the base of the glacier – very strange, but it does form some beautiful bright blue caverns which we had the chance to look inside. We climbed our way up the glacier for one KM or so before turning around. The weather was not improving. A mixture of sodden clothes, ice winds and wearing shorts meant that we were starting to get cold. We both had a sense of pride that we had walked on a glacier and we so glad that we had done it!
Calved into the ice were steps to help us reach the plateaux of the glacier. Once we were there we were told that there was about 70m of ice below us – how amazing! The rain had not let up any and therefore there were streams of water running down the glacier. As the water does this it forms ‘Mulans’ which are waterfalls inside the glacier. This meant that the water suddenly disappears under the ice and drops down to the base of the glacier – very strange, but it does form some beautiful bright blue caverns which we had the chance to look inside. We climbed our way up the glacier for one KM or so before turning around. The weather was not improving. A mixture of sodden clothes, ice winds and wearing shorts meant that we were starting to get cold. We both had a sense of pride that we had walked on a glacier and we so glad that we had done it!
While on the climb we made friends with a German girl – Julia who was travelling the south island on her own and sleeping in her car. We decided that we should all stay at the same campsite in the town that night. It felt amazing to get a hot shower and have some hot food. We spent the rest of the night comparing travelling tales with Julie, who has lived in NZ since April 2011 and worked in some of the places we had already visited.
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