Ice Ice Baby

Ice Ice Baby
Fox Glacier, New Zealand

Fox Glacier, New Zealand

Arriving in the town to see the Fox Glacier, the weather was so bad we could barely see the road let alone any mountains or glaciers so we had a relaxed evening a take away dinner and kept our fingers firmly crossed for some clear skies the following day.

Lo and behold we woke up to summer. The sky was blue, the clouds were high and scattered and we could actually see mountains and snow, wow!

We had a leisurely breakfast and made our way to Lake Matheson which had been recommended to us as having fantastic reflections of Fox Glacier. We set off on the track to the viewing platform and arrived to a fairly still lake, clear skies and really pretty reflections. Aside from a few ducks messing up the lake we had a great time taking photos and just enjoying the view. Within about 10 minutes of us arriving the wind built up, the lake was suddenly moving and the clouds were encompassing the top of the glacier and ruining everyones photos. Wow for once we got somewhere just in time! We did feel a bit bad for the poor tourists who were running through the woodland to get the viewing platform in the hope of seeing some perfect reflections. Oops.

Next stop, the terminal face of the Fox Glacier!

I have never seen or been to a glacier before and didn’t really have high expectations, but boy did Fox blow my mind.

Fox Glacier is 13km long and falls 2,600 meters, it is distinguished as being one of the few glaciers in the world that ends at 300m above sea level into lush rainforest. Fox Glacier has been retreating for much of the last 100 years and there has been a massively significant retreat since 2009 which means that the only access onto the glacier is now by helicopter. Seeing chopper after chopper flying in and landing and taking off every ten minutes we couldn’t but wonder if perhaps the increase in helicopters may be impacting the retreat??!!

Anyhow, to get to the terminal face, one of the few glaciers that can be this easily accessed we had to walk through the old valley where the glacier once laid. This is something of a health and safety nightmare, but the Kiwis seem to just let you at it and hope for the best. The worst part of this walk was the final stretch which was about 200 meters at a pretty steep incline with signs everywhere advising that it was a no stopping zone due to the risk of rock fall. Seriously we had to take our chances and stop in the zone as heart attacks were more highly likely than a rock fall at that moment in time.

As it was my best friend Lulu’s birthday, this seemed like as good a place as any for her annual birthday card, Happy Birthday Lulu!!

Onwards to the next stop, Another Glacier, this time Franz Joseph.