Its Washout Day!

Franz Josef Glacier, West Coast, New Zealand
Friday, December 6, 2013

You've heard of Groundhog Day, well this is similar, just wetter! I guess it had to happen. Low cloud and rain on and off all day today, so the helicopter flight to the Franz Josef Glacier was cancelled. So disappointing, but it would have been more so, had we not taken the opportunity on Wednesday. I was really looking forward to getting up close and personal with Franz Josef. It's the moustache you know and all that terminal moraine! We hung about during the morning drinking coffee and watching a film of what it would have been like if we had flown!! It did clear for about 2 hrs in the afternoon, where it just drizzled as opposed to hammer down. We took advantage and did a couple of walks, to the terminal face of the glacier ( well, as close as we could get) and to Peter's Pool. We couldn't miss that could we? It is a very small picturesque kettle lake surrounded by rainforest. There were a couple of swallows swooping down to feed on the plentiful insect life and dragonflies galore. All was silent apart from the call of the birds. The bell bird is particularly melodious.
On the trail back to the car park we met a serious looking cyclist, dressed from head to toe in sky blue Lycra. I was transfixed and didn't get as far as looking at his face! Peter greets him with a cheery 'Hello again!' Both said cyclist and I look bemused and we pass on. PL... 'Did you recognise him?' Me.... 'No, should I?' PL... 'Of course, he's the German guy we met on day 3 of the trip to the Kauri Forest. Surely, you recognised him?!' How is it that if I ask PL to find something like a pair of socks he has no clue, but has instant recall re some itinerant German he has met once in the back of beyond. 'I'm sure he recognised me!' I'm sure he didn't petal, but whatever!
The walk along the glaciated valley to the terminal face of the glacier was fascinating, well I thought so anyway. We started off in dense rainforest, before emerging on to the classic U shaped valley, that had been carved by the glacier over the centuries. In 1750 Franz Josef was several kilometres longer, filling the valley we are now walking through. You can see clearly the striation marks on the straight valley walls and on the rocks carried along under the huge ice sheet and now abandoned on the floor of the valley as the ice has retreated. A vigorous meltwater stream gurgles along the valley floor and as we progress towards the glacier face the landscape becomes more lunar in quality. Debris is scattered everywhere from enormous boulders to fine ground mounds of moraine. Waterfalls cascade down the sides of the valley due to the rain. We approached as close to the edge of the glacier as we were allowed, which wasn't that close as the terrain is clearly very unstable. The glacier at this elevation is a dirty brown colour as it looses its strength and becomes submerged in moraine. The visibility was obviously very poor due to the low cloud and we could only see flashes of the characteristic blue ice further up the valley, but hey ho, we saw it and at least achieved part of the day's plan.
The west coast receives over 6 metres of rainfall annually, which is quite mind boggling. The plant life is fantastic for me and I have seen so many plants we struggle to grow at home thriving in their natural habitat. The beautiful astelia grass that I struggle to keep at home, grows like a weed here and is such a sight, Libertia, tree ferns, ferns all all types, grisolinias, phormiums. I could go on and on, but won't, you'll drop off! I'll just say that this is my type of jungle, festooned so often in every type of moss. It is a magical natural wonderland.Baca lagi