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  • Day 146

    Hokitika to Fox Glacier

    February 8, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    This morning we headed to the beach at Hokitika to see the driftwood sign people keep photographing. It looks pretty cool and considering it is tied together using what looks like the flax grasses it is pretty impressive that it remains standing in the strong winds. After a couple of snaps we then decided to head into the town to buy a Greenstone/Jade necklace. Greenstone was treasured by the Maoris and used to make their weapons as well as decorative items. They tend to be shaped into different designs for different meanings and I went for a fish hook style to signify determination. We looked in with a few shops and eventually found one slightly the shape a whale and made of the flower jade that I liked. We learnt that it us formed where two plates meet and that New Zealand Jade can be quite unique in its colours.
    After picking up this tonga (treasure) we headed off on route for Fox Glacier. The drive was a couple of hours and took us along yet more of the West Coast with its sea views and meandering roads.
    Arriving in Fox we decided to sort out a camp for the night and then head to the walk that took us to the terminal face of the Glacier. It was amazing even at the car park and with no real view if Glacier to see the path it had torn through over hundreds of years. A sign highlights it's reach at about 1750 and it was way down the road we drive up. The mountains either side were tall and sheer with scree at their base and waterfalls running from up high to join the river below, which ran it course over rocks and pebbles that were spread wide and flat along the path of the old Glacier. What was amazing here too was the fact that looking at the face of the sheer mountainsides you could see vertical lines running up in layers, layers which had once been horizontal and have been pushed up where the two continental plates meet at an almost 99 degree angle. It really is amazing how easily you can see the difference between the flat australasian plate side and the Pacific plate that rises up and over it to form the Southern Alps.
    The walk was about 40 minutes, starting steady, the odd stone hopping over creeks, before becoming much steeper at a point where stopping was not allowed in case of rock fall. The Glacier came into view more and more as we climbed higher so this added motivation to this section of the walk. It is strange because I have been here before in 2008 and there was a sign to show the decline of the Glacier since then. I remembered this steep part from my walk in 2008 and we were looking right onto the Glacier and then walking onto the ice from where we now walked on stones, still waiting for a view of the terminal face. Such an astonishing change in such a short space of time.
    Eventually the terminal face came into view and we could walk no further. It is awesome to see, even at a distance and made us even more excited for our helicopter ride and hike next week. You can make out the ice blue hues in the cracked and textured ice, but mostly it is d b irty as it has picked up debris in its flow. The river ran out the bottom and into the valley and the cleaner looking ice worked it's way up around a bend out of sight.
    We took some pictures and enjoyed the view before heading back to the car, taking more pictures, and then driving to Lake Matheson to see if we could capture a reflection if Mt Tasman and Mt Cook in the water. The drive took us down a long stretch of road that cut through the very flat and wide Valley that was covered in golden grasses and housed quite a few cows. The walk to the Lake was another few thousand steps to add to the many already done. It took us through the jungle like forest (so weird to basically have rainforest bordering these snow capped peaks) and eventually to the lookouts if the Lake. There was a bit of a wind and so no perfect reflection but it was beautiful non the less. The peaks also had a but if lingering cloud about them so we will have to guess a little of the views up there. Back through the lush green bush and in need of a sit down I got an ice cream from the cafe (double caramel magnum...yum!) and we sat in the sun enjoying the view.
    Our final trip of the day was to the coast again. We drove further along the long straight Road and as the sunset turned the sky pink and the fields golden we noticed in the rear view that the Glacier was revealing itself as more of the mountain came into view the further we drove. It was pretty spectacular.
    Soon enough we turned into another new Zealand special unsealed road that took us through the forest and winding roads to a beach said to have beautiful sunsets. It did, very orange, the mountains inland in the distance pink, lots of driftwood and waves that crashed and burst so close to the shore like a Mexican wave of splashes. Rob laughed when I said this but I saw no other way of describing them. The only downside was the sandflies. Oh my word! We have had a few bites along the way, the coast is famous for them, but this was ridiculous!!! They swarmed around you and just seemed to be everywhere, there was no escape and after a very short attempt at enjoying the view we decided the people setting up camp here were mad and we left for our sandflies free camp back over the bumpy Road.
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