Fox Glacier

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Up and into the village for 9.30am. We had scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast with yogurt - a nice treat!
At 9.30am, Mike our guide, called us into the boot room to get ou walking boots, socks and crampons. They explained the walk and H&S thenw e all jumped on the bus. When we got to the carpark we split into two groups. We went with Mike as he seemed alot more enthusistic about everything! We walked over 2 rivers, up the mountain side into the rainforest, along a steep cliff and then down onto the Glacier. They have to walk this way now as the ice has grown so much in width it has blocked the old path running along side it!
The views from the rainforest walk are amaxing, you can see all the way up to the top where the Neve is. If you have the money the Heliwalk is the best as you go half way up the glacier and then walk through the gullys, ice caves etc.
The Fox Glacier is 13km long from the Neve ( the top bit of the mountain where the snow gathers ), 800, across and 200m thick. it is the most unique Glacier in the world as it moves 5m on the top part a day! This takes itforward 10cm a day at the bottom! Most Glaciers are receding due to global warming etc but this one gets so much snow fall a year it is advancing!
The Fox Glacier village at the bottom is only 200m above sea level making it a temperate Glacier, again very rare. It's really odd to see KM of ice next to a rainforest! This area gets around 7m of rainfall a year - in comparison London gets around 1m a year! This obviously turns to snow at the top! Alot of it is thanks to Australias deserts, the warm air mixed with the Ocean air creates this thick cloud range then hits the mountains here! The rivers where we walked over can change daily. As teh ice melts and the water pours out, it is also carrying and cruching alot of the stone. The rivers and gorges here fill up with the ruble and when it gets too high, the water naturally changes course, thus the valley isn't made from erosion and is rising! As the rock is smashed by the ice, it is made into a flour like substance, all else fall sto the bottom but this flour sits in the water making it an amazing turquoise blue color. Alot of the rivers in this area are this color. Beautifull! The ice and water are at a constant temperature of 0 degres. The water doesn't freeze as it is constantly moving. Ittakes 1-6 years for the top ice to reach the bottom, this compared to any other glacier normally taking 50-60 years! Even geologists don't believe it until they visit!
The ice was quite dirty, there are rocks caught up in it, dirt, but also ALOT of ash. When Australia has it's bush fires, the ash is carried over in the rain and water particules then in the snow - amazing!
The whole trip was about 4 hours for a half day and really worth it. The guides are really interesting to talk to and you can't imagine what the ice is like until you have walked on it! This was is the less crowded of the two, with Franz Josef. This is also the place where the Fox Mints were named afetr - how cool :-)
We went back and got a certificate for the day, had some lunch and then went on the internet to book our next trips in Queenstown.

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Photos

Fox Glacier
Bottom of the Glacier, black from the dirt and rocks