On a cold, crisp and clear morning we set off on a 25km drive to the nearby Fox Village, where we detoured slightly to Lake Matheson. We parked up and started on the 2.5km lake circuit track, which as the signs proclaimed would take us to the ‘view of views’. Watching over us as we went on our way were Mount Cook (right) and Mount Tasman (left) – New Zealand’s tallest mountains.
As we got to our ‘view of views’ viewpoint there was a rather stubborn old man with a huge camera blocking our ‘view of views’…so we moved to a different viewpoint, which in our opinion was better than the ‘view of views’…ohhh! Below are a couple of the 20+ pictures that were taken during our time there!
Walking back to the van we never tired of the view, and felt very lucky that it was such a clear sunny morning.
Next stop was Fox Village where we had signed ourselves up for a guided glacier hike, something neither of us had done before. We were kitted up by our guide – woolly socks, leather boots, wind breaker jacket and crampons. We were then driven the short distance to the Fox Glacier terminal face car park, where we walked the moraine track past the public access track.
We then started our 800 step climb across a bluff (cliff face) to come alongside the lower reaches of the glacier, and start our descent down on to it. From where we sat strapping our crampons on in preparation we could see the day hiking group heading off the ice…can you spot them in this picture?! And, believe it or not the picture below right has a guide hiking down the side of the glacier (which is 300 metre in depth) – can you spot him in his red jacket?
Our journey on to the ice was through a crevasse (a crack in the glacier ice formed as it crosses obstacles while descending) – it was a tight squeeze!
Walking on the 300 metre deep glacier was definitely an experience neither of us will forget, and luckily the crampons did their job and neither of us took a tumble.
The Fox Glacier falls 2600 metres on it’s 13 km journey towards the coast. It was named after an early New Zealand Prime Minister William Fox (by himself). The walk back off the glacier, as the sun came down and shined its golden light into the glacial valley was truly spectacular!
What an amazing day! …Sorry Mum Smith about all the photos (there were about 80 we haven’t put on) i know how long this will take you to print out!!
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