Very Cool

April 08, 2005

I left Greymouth and travelled South to the small town of Franz Josef which sits in the valley at the bottom of a glacier.
I decided it would be cool (literally) to explore the glacier up close so booked onto a half day walking tour.
We walked through the valley and up to the terminal face of the glacier before donning our crampons for a few hours exploring on the ice. We saw some interesting formations and walked though a crevasse and learnt a little about the glacier.
It is very unusual as it descend to around only 250m above sea level and sits in an area covered with temperate rain forest. Due to the position on the West coast and weather fronts moving across the Tasman Sea a lot of snow falls on the glacier Neve (snow catchment area) and the top layer of the glacier advances 5m per day., with the terminal face advancing 1m per day. Besides Fox glacier (which falls from the same Neve) this is the only place in the world outside Argentina and Chile where glaciers and temperate rainforests co-exist.
After Franz Josef I decided I would head to the second glacier of Fox but the weather was a little too miserable so I spent my afternoon deciding where I should go next.
South (again) and inland to Wanaka.