Day 81 - Fox Glacier

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An early start to go and hike on the Fox Glacier itself with the help of Alpine Guides who took us on an old 1970's Bedford Bus to the foot of the glacier. An amazing sight! A huge twisted sharded chunk of ice slowly slipping and grinding its way down a valley from the snowy mountains above. It is one of only 3 glacier's in the world where there is jungle round the valley surrounding the glacier, the others are Franz Josef and in Argentina. After a steep walk over rocky cliffs and through dense jungle we get better close up views. We put on our spiked crampons and climb up an ice staircase cut into the glacier earlier in the day by the guides. We were fortunate to be able to climb through a hole down into a tiny ice cave and out through a crevass, not common for half-day tours. After some more hiking and photos we headed back to the hostel. Definitely an entertaining experience that you don't get to do everyday. For sunset we drove to Lake Matherson where there are superb mirrored views of the mountains reflected in the water.

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Photos

More ice
We didn't check whether it tasted of mint ;-)