Days 71 and 72 - drive to Fox Glacier and Glacier walk

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We spent most of Friday May 4 on our drive from Queenstown to Fox Glacier. The ~360 km drive was stunning and passed through many national parks and mountain passes and we took our time as we stopped at multiple locations to enjoy the views, and of course, get pictures.

We reached Fox Glacier just before sunset and caught some great views of the last light along the monutains by Lake Matheson, which we later found out was created by Fox Glacier when it extended all the way to the valley nearly 10,000 years ago.

We woke up early (today) for our glacier walk, both excited and a little nervous. The walk was amazing, starting with a short hike up to the face of the glacier, and then onto the glacier itself. New Zealand is one of the only 3 places in the world where you can find temperate glaciers (glaciers close to sea level surrounded by forest), the other two are Alaska and Chile.

Some of the key highlights of the walk included peeking through the moulins (tunnels excavated in the glacier by water), gauging the depth of the "crevaces" with our walking poles, seeing a Kea (worlds only Alpine parrot) and above all mantaining our balance in our crampons. After a great introduction to the Fox Glacier, we drove back to Queenstown.

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Photos

Lake Matheson
Sunset

Fox Glacier
Single file as we hike to the glacier

Fox Glacier
Glacier pond

Fox Glacier
Our sexy footwear, notice the crampons and pants tucked into our socks

Fox Glacier
Cheri tries to see how deep the small pool of water is...her pole never hit the bottom

Fox Glacier
The Wardle's waddling on the ice

Fox Glacier
Guess we know who does the real work in the family

Fox Glacier
A moulin (blue...not rouge)

Fox Glacier
The Kea, world's only Alpine Parrot. Named due to the noise it makes (Kea!). Also, in the picture is some a****** who wouldn't move out of the way