Thursday, 23 April 2009

20/04/2009 Fox Glacier

What we learnt: Fox Glacier is the longest of the New Zealand West Coast glaciers (13km). It falls 2,600 metres, on its way from the Southern Alps to the West and it's nowadays one of the most accessible in the world. Fox Glacier is said to be moving at approximately 10 times the speed of other valley glaciers around the world.

While Paco and family were on their way to a helihike on the top part of the glacier, Phil and I did a half-day walk with the Fox Glacier Guiding company. Not a single cloud on the sky and the sun was shinning like on a summer's day. The track began through bush on the left side of the glacier, and went on for around one and a half hours until we reached the ice, put the crampons on, and actually walked on the ice. There we walked for about another hour, squeezed through ice holes and arches, and learnt a little bit more about the place. The blue colour of the ice was at some parts really bright and beautiful (unfortunately that was the day when our camera broke down, so the pics we have aren't very good). A bit expensive, but highly recommendable.



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