We left about 9:30am after making tentative plans for a 1:30pm trip to Fox Glacier (a little south of the larger Franz Josef Glacier). We had stopped overnight at Fox during our 2005 vacation, but didn't venture outside as Kent was still fighting a cold and the hotel room was freezing. This time, we were much better prepared and the weather cooperated (clouds moving off while we were at the glacier). On the drive down, we stopped at a heliport outside of Whataroa to look at pilings for the old bridge, noticing that there was still plenty of snow on the Southern Alps. On our way back to the main road, we noticed a car off in the ditch on the right hand side of the road. We drove back to the heliport to notify them. Turns out that the driver was going much too fast and skided off the gravel road as he was attempting to make a bend in the road. The driver was fine and a farmer was coming with a tractor to extract his car from the ditch.
As we came around the last bend in the twisty road leading into the town of Fox Glacier, we saw how vast the glacier had been in the past. The town is visible on the extreme left of the photo while the river spreads out in a wide bed that stretches 20 km to the Tasman Sea. We joined a French man and Austrian mother/daughter for a tour of the glacier. The mother knew a little English, but the daughter spoke it well (she spent a couple of years in Australia. The brochure described the tour as requiring low to moderate fitness ... which we decided afterwards was applied using Kiwi standards of fitness.
At the carpark, we immediately saw indications (vertical scoring of the rock wall) of the glacier's passing. Our guide, Mike, said the ground in this vicinity was soft, which accounted for numerous debris heaps at the base of the valley walls. Individual rocks varied in size from elephant to dinner plate. The zoom setting on the camera inverts the apparent size of the rocks in the photos. The smaller rock also clearly shows layers of quartz and other minerals. On our way to the glacier itself, we noticed that waterfalls were almost everywhere (not surprising given the springtime thaw underway). The walk itself was well marked with signs indicating the dangers of being swept away in the river.
Over the first rise from the carpark, we saw where the glacier had been in 1998 (the tree line in the upper right of the photo). You can also see that it wasn't a short jaunt from the carpark to the glacier (ended being a little over 1 km). While most of the path was crushed gravel, we did have to ford a couple of small streams. For some reason, the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC; responsible for all the conservation lands in Nz and the maintenance of the carpark and paths up to the face of the glacier) had plenty of available stones just the right size for building the fords.
And here's our first up close view the glacier. You can see that the day started cloudy (obscuring the upper third in the photo). The public viewing area is close to the face of the glacier. The trail for guided tours (such as ours) snakes up the left side of the glacier. Anna and the Austrian Mom decided that they didn't need to attempt the steep path with loose gravel, especially after a 1 km hike. The exit hole for the river from the glacier is clearly visible in the center of this photo. The glacier picks up quite a bit of loose rock and gravel, which accounts for the milky gray color of the river below the glacier.
Here, you can see how steep the trail is above the public viewing area near the glacier face. Our guide Mike (with the blue pack) is leading the rest of us to a better view from above the glacier. Although the other two members surrendered their walking poles, Kent gladly kept his to aid in scrambling to the top. This next photo shows a hole near the edge of the trail. Mike showed us that there was trapped galcial ice about 3 inches below the trail's surface. Although the DOC maintains the trail up to the public viewing area, the glacier tour companies share responsibility for maintaining the trails beyond that. Here, you can see they have built a series of steps using a two-by-four frame filled with gravel (conveniently at hand thanks to the glacier). The end of the trail is somewhat below the high point, as you can see us climbing out.
After scrabbling down the guided trail and the DOC-maintained trail from the public viewing area, we reached Anna and the Austrian Mom (the two figures standing at the bottom switchback). After reuniting, we had a short tea/water break. Mike went down to the river and pulled out a chunk of glacier ice for us to put in our water. Kent refilled our water bottle with a stream feeding into the main river (not quite as pure as glacier ice melt, but darned close). The rest of the group continued on to Lake Matheson (a great venue for reflecting photos at dawn and dusk – dusk was preferred as the sun would be behind the lake and shining on the mountains/glacier).
