Nebelhom's Miscellaneous: Tour of the Fox Glacier (15.3.2014)

After a night of being pretty much knocked out cold for eight hours despite the moisture and mouldy smell in the room, we were... well, admittedly sluggish, but ready to go on our full day tour of the Fox Glacier.

Maybe before I get into the details of the tour, I'll discuss briefly the Fox Glacier Village. I wouldn't actually call the ragtag assembly of a couple of houses, 4 hostels/hotels, two bars, a Convenience Store and the Fox Glacier Tours Reception a village as such and more like the mutual agreement that building houses close to each other might be a good idea... but let's not associate, alright?

It is set right at the foot of the mountains that are all covered in greenery in true rainforest fashion. The air is fairly humid as we are no 20 km out from the Tasman Sea. All in all, although there are many backpackers and travelers that come through, it feels like one of the last outposts of something vaguely resembling civilization.

We assembled at the shop/Fox Glacier Tours Reception to get setup with gear and a short safety briefing by the guides. Of note in the equipment for us were the so-called "crampons", a contraption that is strapped to the bottom of your shoes and that sports six spikes that will allow you to walk over ice without the danger of slipping.

For now, we put those in our backpacks and went on a bus to the foot of the glacier. Again, as is New Zealand's wont, they don't just have a glacier, no they have a very special glacier. Fox Glacier is special in that it starts right where the rain forest stops. Usually, there is a pronounced area of no vegetative growth before the glacier starts. Not so here, due to the very high amount of rain, within a year of the glacier retreating, you will see the first algae, mosses and ferns showing up. There are only two other regions apparently, where you can observe this phenomenon. One is about 30 km further north from here at Franz Josef Glacier and the other one is in Chile in Patagonia (or so we were told).

Crossing two short danger zones due to potential rock falls we quickly managed to get to the actual zone of ice. There we finally put on our crampons. I gotta admit walking with those was something to get used to. Essentially, if you are, like me, a person who hardly lifts his feet when walking and lurches from place to place then this will need some getting used to. It felt like I was stomping across the entire glacier as I always had to lift my feet fairly high (that is the feeling I had) to avoid getting the front spikes stuck in a piece of ice and fall over.

The experience was a very special one for us. It was so different to anything we have done before. It lacked the beauty of the landscapes we have seen so far, but on its own the glacier offered things to see that you would not see anywhere else.

First off, I imagined it very differently to what it actually was like. The lower parts of the glacier where almost entirely covered in rocks a bit like a blanket, so it doesn't really "look" like a glacier at first sight. Secondly, it was a warm day at the foot with about 20-25°C and on the glacier the temperatures only dropped to about 15°C with a constant... I think the word the guide used was "abatic wind" that is inherent to glaciers. Thirdly and finally, the masses of water flowing down it. I mean, I was aware of the rivers that are fed by glacial water, but not "that much of it"! This glacier melts damn fast. Our guide (A very bubbly, but yet tough as nails French-Canadian girl) told us that every morning the landscape of the glacier is different and they have to find a new path every time.

She showed us several, very cool formations that are caused by melting. Due to dust and rocks on the glacier, the sun melts it very irregularly, sometimes you see entire little tubes going straight down or a little torrent of water disappear underneath otherwise stable ice while in two days it may have created an entire network under the ice.

In one such hole she took us down where there was enough space for the entire group of 13 people. It was a hole of about 5 - 10 meters diameter with the glacial stream coming down from one side into the hole and down there burrowing its way through the ice forming a little tunnel that we could go in for a short distance. There were several other very cool ("literally") moments, for example, when we went through a crevasse between two very large sheets of ice (I really felt small), but I do not want to bore you with it.

We made our way back after a bit longer than 5 hours on the ice, exhilarated by the experience which will be a certain highlight of our journey thus far. Once back in the hostel, we just grabbed some dinner and started preparing our next journey which will be to the Abel Tasman Nationalpark. We are constantly watching the weather forecast as we know that there is a storm front moving from the northern island to the south and we are hoping to pass it and have at least one or two nice days in Abel Tasman before we take the ferry over to the North Island. So far, with every passing day, the weather looks more promising...

We are not really looking forward to the almost seven hour journey along the Westcoast, but we traveled an entire day (officially three calendar days) to get to this remote pair of islands, so we will survive this one, too ;) With this in mind, I'll start packing my bag to have an early start tomorrow. Take care y'all.