Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier

Today was a big walking/hiking day. The morning started with a drive towards Fox Glacier. We stopped at Lake Matheson first for a nice forest walk around the lake, which in good and still conditions is a mirror lake. It was a pretty walk with moss covered trees and different ferns. Every now and again there was a break in the trees and you got a glimpse of the lake and the mountains. There was a large mountain range here, including Mount Tasman and Mount Cook. We finally saw the top of Tasman, but as we walked around the overcast conditions meant that the summit of Cook eluded us still.

The mirror lake effect was ok when looking out towards the mountains. However, much like the mirror lake in Fiordlands National Park, the ducks were causing small ripples impacting the glassy mirror surface. Away from the ducks at the far end of the lake we got good mirror pictures of the trees (shame the ducks weren't on this end instead!). It was still very picturesque with the lake, trees, and mountains and would be a pleasant wee walk. It was just over four kilometers and took us about an hour with the stops for pictures.

After Lake Matheson we drove about five minutes up the road to Fox Glacier viewpoint. It was off in the distance, but you got a good view that wasn't blocked at all by the forest. It's a shame it's receded so much in the last ten years or so. It still looks impressive nestled between the mountains, but I'm sure it would be more impressive up close (and if I'd seen it years ago).

We left the viewpoint and drove about half an hour to Franz Josef Glacier. Much like Fox Glacier, this one has receded an alarming amount and you can only access it via helicopter now. Allan mentioned he hiked up to it and potentially on to it about 10 years ago. Now, that's not even remotely possible.

We decided to do the Roberts Point Track. Websites suggest it's one of the best hikes to get a good view of the glacier. I was a bit nervous because it's a longer hike and involves some scrambling on slippery walks, but it's been a while since I've done a proper big hike and it's the only way to see this iconic glacier. And who knows, it might be gone by the time I come back to New Zealand, if I do.

The hike wasn't as bad as I expected, but that's mainly down to the weather. The track was pretty dry. It starts with a gravel path on the Douglas Walk before it diverts from this walk over the first of four swing bridges. The walk continued over some bigger, chunky rocks until we got to the second bridge. This one was crazy wobbly! It didn't seem stable in the slightest, but wasn't secured at the bottom so it really wiggled when you walked over it.

After this bridge things started to get challenging. The ice cut rocks stuck out at sometimes awkward angles when trying to walk up and over them, but they were mostly dry with occasional little streams of water flowing over and between them. The track also started to get steep shortly after the second bridge. At one point, we had to climb rocks and tree roots almost like a ladder. The rocks also seemed to smooth out a bit and looked like the top of ice cream scoops at times. If they were wet, they'd be very slippery so I'm glad they weren't.

Almost an hour into the track we came across our third bridge. This was the longest swing suspension bridge I'd seen on any hike ever. It was about 100 meters long suspended over big rocks looking out over running glacier water and a rock field where the glacier used to be. It was pretty bouncy and only enough room for one person to walk at a time so I bet at busy times this can be a bit of a traffic jam area because people can't walk both ways.

Once across the long, bouncy bridge, it wasn't long until we came to Hende's Hut, named after the guy that built the hut in the early 1900s and helped come up with the idea for the floating steps at the side of a cliff just after the hut. The floating steps were pretty cool, and like the long bridge it was narrow and only allowed for one person to go one direction at a time.

After going down the steps, it was steep for a while and involved clambering a bit over smooth rocks. Most of them were dry, but if blogs and route descriptions are any indication, the rocks are normally wet and slippery. Even without the wet, we still took our time and I often used my hands to help. This part of the trail was also more open without trees above us. After conquering the rocks, we were back under the tree cover and walked across our fourth and final bridge. Once we crossed that little bridge, we had to climb some more craggy rocks and walk over some small streams, but it wasn't as steep.

Eventually, we made the last bit of ascent and climbed over a big rock to get to a set of small stairs that led up to a deck area. It was here that we got the view of the glacier. It was a great view of the glacier, but sad at the same time because it's so clear how much it has receded. We also got a lovely view of the cliff across the valley with some small waterfalls running down. We sat here catching our breath and enjoying the well earned view before we started the climb back down.

The way down was tricky, because climbing up rocks, smooth or rough, is easier when your momentum is going up. Going down it's easier to fall, and you don't want to fall forward. Again, it was a lot of hands for support and a more zig zag walk rather than straight up. It was fun going across all the bridges again knowing that certain steep sections were done. We didn't take as long going down as we thought we might, but again, that's down to the lack of slippery stones.

It started to rain after we went over the final (first) swing bridge, which was good timing because all the hard parts were over and it was just the last kilometer or so back to the parking lot on the nice gravel path. Feeling accomplished back at the car, we took off our boots and had some water and a snack. We couldn't hang about long though, because we had to get on the road to our next campsite about an hour or so from the glacier on the way to Hokitika. We stopped at Kakapotahi Beach for the night. We boiled water for some cup of noodle bowls and sat down to watch the last 45 minutes or so of Fellowship of the Ring before the rental expired in a couple hours.

We should have gone to bed after that, but instead got distracted with planning and looking at things to do for the north island in a couple days. Tomorrow is a busy day, and hopefully we can get a shower because we do not smell great 😂Read more