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  • Day 457

    On the hunt for glaciers and reflections

    May 19, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We're now in the West Coast region of the South Island and with our Lonely Planet book and a leaflet as guides we set off on a day of driving and exploring. Our destination for today was Fox Glacier. There's two main glaciers on the West Coast, Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier, both very close to each other. We did a heli hike on the Tasman Glacier at the start of our trip and absolutely loved it however we are unsure if we would do anything else like this again here so we plan to visit a visitor centre to see if anything takes our fancy. Our campsite wasn't too far from Fox Glacier so after a scenic drive it didn't take us too long to arrive. Turns out these two glaciers are the most accessible in the world and you can walk up to within 450m of the base of the ice unguided. As we drove to the carpark for this walk there were signs telling you where the glacier use to come up to. It was crazy seeing signs from 1935 showing that the glacier was a good 2-3km longer than it is now. It's sad to think at some point it will be gone entirely. The walk up to the view platform was a lot harder than we were expecting. Our legs were still feeling the pain of climbing Roys Peak so every uphill and downhill ached and we were wearing jeans which are never good to walk in. The last section was a steep climb and I was even beginning to question if it was really worth it. When we finally made it the view was impressive and only the smallest section of ice was visible. The glacier had receeded so much in comparison to the photo shown on the information boards from when this platform was installed. The signs also showed a harrowing news article or two tourists who died after climbing over the barrier to get a "better look" at the glacier and were caught in a rock slide. It's crazy what people will do for photos when they don't consider or understand the risks. As we stood looking at the glacier the heavens began to open so we swiftly began the 45 minute walk back to the van. By the time we were safely inside it was really pouring down. We decided to head to the Fox Glacier township which consists of about 15 buildings to wait out the rain in a coffee shop. When a brief break in the weather came we drove the short journey to Lake Matheson. The lake is famous for creating a mirror reflection of the beautiful view of the alps including Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. You need a clear still day for the reflection to be perfect, something we wouldn't get with the weather but we'd reached a point where even just having no rain in the photo would be good. We walked the 20 minutes or so to the jetty where the photo can be taken and with the rain holding off we waited for any brief dip in the wind. Although the photo's not perfect and you can't see the main mountains I'm still pretty pleased with the outcome especially because before we had even made it back to the van the rain started beating down again. Because we were cold and wet we decided to stay at a paid campsite in Franz Josef and will visit the information centre tomorrow. It's amazing how good a heater and a hot shower feel after a cold and wet day.Read more