Franz, Fox and worms

Today was our glacier trip to Fox Glacier. After being issued with boots and crampons we boarded the bus for the 15min drive out to the glacier site. From there it was a walk up round the side of the valley to climb onto the glacier higher up away from the volatile face. Whereas Franz Josef still has an ice cave mouth where its stream pours out Fox currently does not. Our guide told us of how he was giving a talk to a party while he was facing the glacier and the group was not as suddenly the mouth collapsed into the stream below. A bizarre section of the route to the glacier was through a rock fall zone. The trip organisers saw fit to install an LED in a plastic lunch box connected to (presumably) piezo wires leading up the mountain. If the LED was on the rocks were static but no stopping to admire the view through this section. The glacier is actually advancing (increasing in size) at the moment, for many years it was retreating back into the valley. Along the way driving to the glacier there are signposts of where the face was many years past. The reason it is now growing is global warming! The rain that is not falling in Australia, causing the bush fires, is making it to New Zealand falling as snow in the upper mountains and feeding the glacier. After fitting the crampons to the boots and collecting an ‘explorers’ pole we made our first steps onto the ice. Despite the fact that steps are cut for each ascent and descent and the crevasses you walk through are safely packed with ice it was a great experience to walk round a real glacier. There were reminders of how dangerous they can be with guides practicing the crevasse rescue on the less sociable sections. You get a sensation of walking on a giant living being with it slowing contorting as it cuts it way down the valley. Sections open up and close again over periods of months. As the crevasses close the rocks and debris that has collected inside it are expelled with great force and seen as very fine mud seeping from old wounds. Apparently a great exfoliate. In the afternoon we took a couple of walks round the side of the glacier following its journey over hundreds of years. Far from the current face is the remains of the Victorian cabin that was the access point to the glacier. Now it just provides a good viewpoint to see the glacier from. Another walk took us around Lake Matheson, famed for its reflections of the mountains in the distance. We got to see the reflections, but with the peaks of the mountains cut short by cloud. For those that do not like the underground Fox Glacier town has its own glow worm park which you can walk round at night and see glow worms sheltered by raised tree roots.