Blogs from Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 16

Early start to go ice climbing on the Fox. Got kitted out at 8am at the Fox Guides base. Loads of gear. Inner boots, outer boots, crampons, "tools", ropes, ice screws, hats, helmets. All set for a 9 hour day of this! Instructor was Dennis. Just one other guy ice climbing: Paul from Leeds, who is a keen rock climber but never tried ice. Dennis and Paul compared notes on climbing equipment. I wondered how I was going to survive. Not much sleep last night... the climbing soon blew that away. We started off learning how to walk around with crampons, up slopes, then moved on to climbing progressively steeper ice walls. For the last climb, Dennis scouted out and set up a "sick one" - an ice cave on one side, and a deep crevasse ... read more

Sorry about the lack of photos for this blog, we can't find any internet places that will accept our card reader! Our next stop on our whirlwind tour of the South Island was Fox Glacier. One of two glaciers you can climb on the West Coast, we picked Fox to visit as it is supposedly easier to access, less crowded, and the killer reason, cheaper. We arrived in rain, not unheard of on the West Coast, and arranged to do a 'Nimble Fox' tour the following day. This was a 6-7 hour hike up to and then onto the glacier. I was muttering to myself at the prospect of another 6 hour hike and carefully questioned the receptionist whether there were any staircases that might be devillish in origin, to be told there were steps up ... read more

HI FOLKS!!!! HOPE YOUR ALL WELL AND ENJOYING MY WEB BLOG. PLEASE WRITE COMMENTS ABOUT IF YOU CAN FIND THE PLACE TO DO IT. WELL THIS INSTALMENT OF MY BLOG I WENT TO THE FOX GLACIER, VERY SIMILAR TO FRANZ JOSEF GLACIER BUT A LOT QUIETER, NOT SO MANY TOURISTS COME TO THIS ONE, WHICH IS A MAJOR PLUS. WE DECIDED FOR THIS GLACIER TO REALLY GET THE ADRENALINE PUMPING BY DOING ICE CLIMBING. IT SAME AS CLIMBING UP A ROCK FACE BUT THIS ONE IS ICE!! YOU MIGHT OF GUESSED THAT ALREADY!! WELL I THOUGHT IT WAS BRILLIANT REALLY GOT INTO IT. AMAZING BEING LOWERED INTO MASSIVE CRAVESSES ABOUT 100MT DEEP AND SEEING THE BLUE ICE. BEN SAID IT WAS NOT HIS THING MAYBE AS HE ALMOST TOOK THE GUIDE OUT A FEW TIMES WHEN ... read more

Just a quick one as don't have much time. I arrived here from Wanaka today. Spent yesterday hiking up to the Rob Roy Glacier in the Mount Aspiring range near Wanaka. This was incredible - a lovely day walk, although quite a few people around. I ate lunch lying in a meadow staying up at this huge glacier a few hundred metres above me, with hundreds of waterfalls pouring down the sides of the valley. This afternoon I did a guided walk on Fox glacier - this is amazing because its only 200m above sea level, and about 20km from the coast, yet there's this massive pile of ice. I couldn't understand how it hadn't melted. But now I know all about glaciers, and could explain it to anyone who's interested! Plus got to wear cramp-ons. ... read more

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 ... read more