Fox Glacier

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Yesterday we did something very cool. We walked on a glacier! There are only 3 places in the world where you can just walk from rainforest onto a glacier: Fox glacier, where we were, Franz Joseph, 20km up the road and Patagonia. So we considered ourselves quite priveleged to be able to do it.

We were told to wear 3-4 layers of upper body clothing including a raincoat and they provided us with some sturdy boots.
We rode on an old fashioned bus to the viewpoint carpark. The company have been running tours for around the last 100 years and they like to use old style buses. They had some great old photos of people too, dressed quite differently to how we were all dressed!
We walked across the car park and were standing on some small rocks. Our guide asked what we were standing on. A few people named some rocks before the guide took his pick axe and chipped away - ice flew up. It was pretty weird to be standing on camoflagued ice.

We had around an hour and a halfs walk from the car park to be actually standing on the glacier. Our first glimpse of the glacier took our breath away. It was amazing to just see it sitting there filling up the valley. We could also see the part that feeds down into the part we were going to be on. The bottom part that we were on moves at around 20cm a day at the moment where as the feeder part moves at 9m a day. Apparently people have tried to climb up but no one has ever succeeded because it moves too fast.
Our walk took us over a few fast flowing streams and into the rainforest where we mostly climbed steps up to the top of the ice. One part was a little hairy with a steep drop to one side, so they give you a chain to hold onto. Once we were out of the forest and next to the ice it got a bit colder and we replaced the layers that we had shed whilst walking through the forest, we also strapped on our crampons so that we'd have grip on the ice. Usually at this poiont we would have gone for our walk on the glacier, but we had to wait for about 20 minutes because the other groups hadn't come down yet because the route that they take through a crevase had collapsed a bit. So our guide had to go and help carve some new steps at which point the groups came down very slowly one at a time.

Being on the glacier was incredible. Usually they're all covered in snow when you see them in the Alps, but this one had deep crevases and peaks, and was a deep blue colour under the dirt. We took lots of photos to prove how cool it was!

Today we made our way back to the east coast, where the sun shines, via Arthurs Pass. We are staying in Christchurch tonight and tommorow to watch the Buskers Festival and then will head up the coast a bit.
By the way, we found out why it's rained on us so much. It's because it was so hot in Alice Springs! All that hot wind comes across the Tasman sea sucking it up and then drops it all on the west coast of New Zealand when it hits the cooler mountains. So at least we know why we were constantly soggy. We should be ok now!