Current Mood: Tired & Cool

So after leaving Wanaka we start the long journey to the glaciers, arriving in the evening and finding a parking spot high up the Fox Glacier road.  Apparently had we parked here in 1780 we would of been inside the glacier, but luckily over the years its retreated. 

Sarah and Lucy were a little scared of the dark, so I had to follow them down to the outside loos about 15 feet into the forest to make sure they were okay, wasn’t expecting them to have a number two with the doors open though – what a lovely treat. 

We woke up in the morning to clear skies and made our way to the information centre.  We decided that we wanted to walk on the Franz Josef and not the Fox Glacier so made our stay at the Fox glacier all about the walking.  We parked up and trekked over the hills to the Terminal face of the ice.  It really is massive and the creaking that you can hear coming from the ice is spooky.  Taking pictures of it doesn’t show you how humungous it actually is, apparently a 1metre x 1metre block weighs approximately 1 tonne and here in front of us we have a mountains worth.

[zp]fox-glacier[/zp]

After a brisk hour and a half walk we still had the afternoon to burn to head off to a place called Lake Matheson, also known as Reflection Lake.  The walk was about 2hours in length and to begin with I didn’t think much of it, walking through forest for about 30-45 mins which really wasn’t all that interesting – then you get to a lookout and wow!  It isn’t called Reflection Lake for nothing, you can literally turn your pictures upside down and you have an image that is perfectly mirrored!  Beautiful and well worth the walk…  We finished the day with a Hot Choc and Spicy Wedges at the Lake Matheson Cafe before heading over to the Franz Josef Glacier.

Early morning and we had already booked ourselves a half day hike on the glacier, the weather was blue and we had all eaten our porridge (I get force fed by the girls, they hold my nose and everything!).  We went and signed in, recieving our Cramp-Ons (Spiky Ice Things), Leather Boots and New Zealand Wool Socks, then it was into the mini-bus for our ride to the Glacier.  Didn’t realise, but we had to walk 45 mins just to get to the face but it was quite scenic walking through the undergrowth.  Then it was on with the spiky Cramp Ons, which had us in stitches as Sarah put them on the wrong feet, even though we had all been shown how to put them on (The one with the big ‘L’ goes on your left foot and the one with the big ‘R’ goes on the right!), trust Sarah to mix that up!

[zp]franz-josef[/zp]

The walk was done up carved steps in the ice, every guide that goes up has to maintain them bringing out thier pick axes and swinging away.  Even walking behind the guide you can see the steps slowly crumbling and melting away!  Scary really as it’s our only way back down.  The walk was surreal and it felt like we were on another planet.  The ice reaching high into the sky around us.  When we reached the highest point we could get to on the half day hike you look around and all around you are these random shapes, little ice windows and a stunning blue tone to bits of the ice caused by refraction.  Simply out of this world.  The walk back down was actually harder as the steps were virtually non existent, as we were walking away we heard a massive creak, then a crack and we saw a huge chunk of ice fall into an ice tunnel, no one is allowed near it so all of us were safe, but to see it fall and hear the bang was crazy, sounded like a helicopter had crashed!!!  Didn’t think I was going to enjoy the hike as much as I did, but even Lucy thought it was one of the best day excursions we have done!  Wahoooo….

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