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Published: February 11th 2007
Fox Glacier
Is it cold then Glynn?I'm sorry if it seems like I've done nothing but moan in my last few blog entries but I kind of wanted to convey that life on the road isn't all a bed of roses. Thankfully, today things have started to look up again.
We left Gillespie's Beach as soon as possible this morning, not even stopping for breakfast due to the persistence of the sandflies and made our way back along the terrible 10km gravel road and on towards the Fox glacier. We pulled into a car park and found a walking trail leading right up to the front of the glacier. The walk itself was across somewhat rugged terrain owing to recent landslides having deposited masses of rocks across the old track. Impromptu waterfalls cascaded down the steep sided valley caused by the heavy rainfall in the mountains over the last few days. We trekked along a wide chasm carved out by the glacier centuries before, taking note of the various signposts marking where the glacier had once stood before receding to its current location.
As we climbed over one small ridge of rocks, the temperature dropped noticeably and mere moments later before our very eyes was
Ice River
Close up of the glacier for your perusal :-) the incredible Fox glacier. The glacier is smaller than I expected although that in no way undermines its impressiveness. The viewing point was no more than about 100 metres from the foot of the glacier and if you felt like taking the risk, it was also possible to scramble further up to the very face of the ice river. Weopted to keep our distance and admired nature's handiwork from afar. The glacier was a mix of turquoise blue ice and white snow with dirty looking sections caused by dark rockfalls over the years still being carried along on its surface. Originally, I had planned to book us a tour to go hiking on top of the glacier but seeing it up close really was wonderful enough.
Back on the main road, we picked up a Kiwi hitchhiker called Stefan who regaled us with stories about his travels in China. It was amusing to discover that in his 5 months in the more remote parts of China, he came to the same conclusion about the place as we did from our tour of the cities: China is a fascinating place but how anything ever gets accomplished there is a mystery!
Wall of Ice
That really is all made of ice and snow! As we were only travelling the short distance to the Franz Joseph Glacier, we droped him off just 20 minutes later and continued to the car park to see our second glacier in a day.
Just as we finished having some lunch, the rainclouds swirled in and dumped their cargo on us. The rain was heavy and relentless so we holed up in the van for an hour or so to see if it would pass over. Then the most surprising thing happened - another campervan pulled up alongside us and the occupants began cheerfully waving at us. It took a moment to register that the two ladies inside were the mum and daughter we had met back at Lake Pukaki - they had spotted our Fellowship of the Frog van and come over to say hello. Cool! They jumped in our van and we chatted while the rain continued to fall. It was like seeing an old friend again and was a welcome bit of good in the recent difficult times.
The rain never did let up and it was too murky to enjoy any kind of view of the Franz Joseph glacier so we said goodbye
Ice Maiden
....and the winner of this year's glacier spotting contest is.... to Billie and her mum and made our way to a DOC site in Hokitika. On the way, we picked up another hitchhiker - this time a cheerful chap from Israel who was walking the long road from the glacier to the main road in the pouring rain. We took pity on the poor bedraggled guy and took him as far as the town centre but I still have trouble liking Israelis after the Jish-napping incident in Thailand. I'm sorry but it's the truth. Thankfully the DOC site at Hokitika had far less bugs than we've encountered lately so we were happy to stay the night and didn't have to spend hours driving around looking for anywhere better for once - phew!
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