South Island Bus Adventure Day 5: Fox Glacier

I woke up around 7:30 AM to the sound of my roommates, who were booked on the All-Day Glacier Walk, getting ready to go out in the rain to the guiding company building. Predicting that I would be tired after the early start and long bus ride the previous day, I had booked the afternoon Half-Day Walk, so I snuggled back under the covers and got another hour or two of sleep. When I woke, the skies were starting to clear--it would turn out to be a beautiful clear afternoon, the perfect weather for glacier hiking.

I headed to the little guide building on the main road, checked in with the staff, and bought my only souvenier of the trip: a warm winter hat to replace the thin one I had brought with me. As suggested on my confirmation email, I was bundled up to the max with two jackets, my new hat, and gloves, along with a backpack with muesli bars and a bottle of water.

The group was led into the "boot room," and we were introduced to our two guides: Sam and Pete. They told us what the day would entail: about a 4-4.5 hour trip with about an hour or so actually spent on the glacier. We exchanged our shoes for stiff boots and were outfitted with a blue rain jacket, long socks, and metal crampons that would be attached to the soles of the boots when we were up on the glacier to increase traction. Then all two dozen of us boarded a minibus for the 15 minute ride to the glacier. From the parking lot, Sam and Pete told us, it would be a 1km walk along flat terrain and then a climb of 800 or so steps through a rainforest to the glacier terminal face.

Fox Glacier itself was an incredible sight. When we pulled into the parking lot, it was clear that where we were standing had once been covered in ice. The glacier had receded over hundreds of years, leaving forested mountains fifteen-stories high on either side of us and a rocky gray expanse leading to the glacier face. According to the guides, the glacier is constantly moving: advancing or receding at up to ten metres per day. Behind the glacier, Aoraki (Mt. Cook) towered in the background.

We walked to the base of the glacier, past some barriers warning not to go any further unless led by an experienced guide, and into the rainforest. Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers are rare in this respect--usually glaciers are way high up in mountains, and it's rare to find them so close to sea level and surrounded by rainforest.

The rainforest beckoned, and we began our climb to the top. The walk consisted of 800+ wide, surfaced steps, most of them the height of two normal staircase steps. Remembering how tired I was the last time had climbed this type of terrain in Whangarei, I made it a point to test myself and try to stay directly behind the lead guide. To my surprise and enjoyment, I didn't find the walk to be too bad. I was behind the lead guide the whole time, and while climbing the stairs was tiring, it wasn't as breath-stealing as it had been in Whangarei. I guess all of the walking in Auckland (a walk to class and back is about 1 mile, so I probably walk 2-4 miles per day on hilly terrain) has paid off. We took a few breaks--one of which at a little waterfall where people could help themselves to cold glacial water.

I shed all of my layers on the way up and put the jackets in my backpack, leaving just my long sleeve T-shirt. It started to mist a little bit, which was a refreshing source of coolness amidst the physical activity. By the time we reached our final break, people were starting to grumble. A bus driver from Brisbane said that this was as much physical activity as he had had for weeks. A Malaysian girl, probably no taller than 4'10", seemed to be overheating--weighed down by a huge rain jacket that she hadn't removed. I was feeling great though--I had a muesli bar and some water and admired the view from up here.

We strapped on our crampons and grabbed a walking stick as we made our way along some narrow steps onto the glacier face. We had come a long way from where we started, and people standing at the base of the glacier were nearly indistinguishable from the rocks. Mt. Cook grew larger and larger as we walked up steps cut in the ice to a flat area on the terminal face.

If you had removed the glacier from its surroundings, it's really just a big pile of ice. It reminded me of a super-scale version of little snow hills left by snowplows at home. In its context, though, the view was incredible. Looking one way, Mount Cook rose from the snow, and looking the other, the glacier valley glimmered green.

We stayed on the glacial face for about an hour. People scurried around taking pictures, and the guides barked out occasionally to keep people from wandering too far. I gave my camera to a couple from DC (Woodley Park/Adams Morgan) to take the money shot:

We started our walk down a different path to the bottom of the glacier. Apparantly, glacier conditions had changed just enough to open this new path over the last six months. We passed by other interesting ice formations on the way down--probably about a 1.5 hour walk back down to the waiting van.

Again, it's impossible to convey in photographs the feeling of being in these valleys with the glaciers right in front of you. Climbing Fox was one of my most memorable parts of the trip, and definitely one of the things I'm going to look back at fondly when I come back from New Zealand.