Fox Glacier. Mint.

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The journey between Nelson and Franz Josef is a painstaking 9 hour trip in a minivan. Quite ridiculous really, that New Zealand is considered a developed country, yet every single South American country I got a bus in (and yes this includes Bolivia) the bus service was much better, and more comfortable. Something to work on for our kiwi friends methinks. Not much to report on the journey, apart from the stop we made at Punaikaiki, which left just enough time for a gander at the pancake rocks, so called because they're formed in layers and look a bit like... pancakes. Who'd have thought?

I arrived in Franz Josef, and tried to book myself onto a glacier walk on the glacier of the same name the next day. Unfortunately, my luck wasn't in, as the trip was already full. This meant a change of plan was required, and so as not to lose precious time, I decided to just have a wander up to have a look at Franz Josef, then actually do the walk on the Fox Glacier the day after.

Franz Josef was a nice enough glacier, but I was quite glad that I wasn't walking on it that day, as the weather wasn't all that pleasant. It's possibly quite unfortunate that I'd seen the Perito Moreno glacier before this one, because Perito Moreno is a lot more impressive, therefore I was left feeling a little bit underwhelmed. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to my walk on Fox, as that is something I didn't get to do down in Patagonia.

The following day greeted me with bright blue skies, meaning that the Southern Alps, which had been hiding in clouds the day before, now were out saying hello. A good omen if ever there was one. We got kitted out for the glacier walk in Fox Village, before a short bus ride took us to the glacier itself. Perhaps it was just the better weather, but to me, from a similar sort of viewpoint, Fox definitely looked like the nicer glacier.

But today was about more than just looking, we were going for a walk on the ice (in the process invalidating my insurance, but sssh). The walk was seriously cool, going through ice tunnels, hiding in caves. At one point, our guide called down one of his mates, and the 2 of them opened up a whole new passage in the ice to explore. If we pretend for a minute that the guides don't exist, I was the first to go down into this new icy hollow, it was great to think that I was the first person ever to explore down there. The blueness of the compressed ice was quite remarkable. As I was the first, our guide Jared's mate snapped a few photos, so perhaps somewhere down the line I'll end up in some promotional material. I expect my royalties cheque in the post.

Sadly, we couldn't traipse around on the glacier forever, so it was time to get back onto solid ground. The walk was really good fun, so I can thoroughly recommend doing it. Doing the full day walk was also a good move, as if you just do the half day, there is a pre cut out track which is all you get to explore. Doing the full day lets you go a bit more "off-piste". Naturally, a successful day was celebrated with a couple of beers, although celebrations were tempered by the news that Murray had lost at Wimbledon. Shame.

Moving swiftly on, my bus to Wanaka was due to leave at 11am the next day. First though, I wanted to visit Lake Matheson, which is a mere 6km from Fox. Sadly, the bus there wasn't running, but this didn't seem to matter, as a Japanese girl I'd been talking to at the hostel said she was going there in a car with her 2 friends. However, despite there just being the 3 of them, they decided that there was no more room. I was a little bit annoyed to say the least. Never fear though, the hostel owner happened to have seen this, and said I could use one of his rental bikes for free. The Japanese took so much time getting ready that I actually got to the lake before them. 1-0 Stewart. The lake itself is beautiful, with great reflections of the Southern Alps in the dead still waters. A combination of this, and chatting to Graham and Lydia (a couple from the glacier walk) meant that by the time I got back to Fox, my bus had left.

Panic did I not however (sorry that phrase appears to have been written by Yoda) as Graham and Lydia had a van and were heading to Wanaka today aswell. More importantly, they had a space in the van, and a quick phonecall ensured that I would be safely on my way.

Stewart

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Photos

The new cave
This is the one I was first into - theres my escape route