Day 11 Fox Glacier

There are 2 things to do in the village of Fox Glacier:

1. Take a photo of the reflection of Mt.Cook in Lake Matheson (the image behind the blog’s title).

2. Take a guided walk on the Fox Glacier itself (about 5km from the village).

What is never mentioned is that all that moisture laden air from the Indian Ocean that passes “under” Australia tries to go over NZ’s Southern Alps. The moisture that doesn’t go over falls as snow on the Alps or rain on the 25km wide strip of land between the Tasman Sea and the Alps. Right where the village of Fox Glacier sits. It has an annual rainfall of 200 inches! Most of it has fallen since I arrived.

After a 40 minute hike at sunrise around Lake Matheson to get to the vantage point, it was very dark and dull with Mt Cook hidden behind clouds. This is the best shot I could get :

The clouds in front of Mt Cook reflected in Lake Matheson. 

But the glacier hike more than justified a visit to the West Coast and accepting the shitty weather.

There’s no photo’s but there will be a video when I stop long enough to sort it out.

The Glacier is over 50 metres high and accessing it takes a 2.5 hour climb, up steps and a track along the valley that has to be rebuilt every day due to rock falls.
It’s a tough hike and a bit scary in places. 2 of the initial 9 in our group had to be escorted back after an hour.
We probably spent  30-40 minutes actually on the ice wearing crampons on our hobnail boots, before returning the way we came.
It was another sensational experience – both the awesome magnitude of the glacier and the sense of achievement of completing the challenging hike in the conditions.

As I’m now a couple of days ahead of schedule I’ll be heading up to the north coast of the South Island in search of some sunshine and to, hopefully, get warm and dry.