Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers

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Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers 31st March - 2nd April 2009

We were so lucky with the weather - usually it does nothing but rain along the west coast of NZ but we have had glorious days of hot sunshine. We walked up to view the Fox Glacier which was very impressive. It would have been cool to go up onto he ice on one of the many helicopter trips they do, but our budget is getting a bit squeezed lately. We decided against a guided walk up on the glacier as even these were quite expensive - anyway the view from the viewpoint was pretty good anyway.

Afterwards we drove down to nearby Lake Matheson which is supposed to be the most photographed lake in NZ because of the reflections of Mount Cook in it. We walked around the lake and picnicked there. There were a few ripples on the water so the reflections weren't as good as they could be, but it was beautiful anyway.

Franz Joseph was just as impressive as Fox. We had a great walk along the river bed to the viewpoint of the terminal face of the glacier. We could see the tiny ant-like figures of people on guided glacier walks as they climbed up the ice steps which were cut into the glacier.

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Photos

Rob
Did they really name a walk after me?

Franz Joseph Glacier
The ice steps are cut in the dark part of the bottom of the glacier. You may just be able to see them - I could do with a more powerful zoom!