Cycle Touring on the South Island of New Zealand

by Susan Otcenas

Saturday, January 8th, 2005 - Fox Glacier

Distance: ummmm, 0.0km, zip, zilch, nada
Average speed: n/a
Time in saddle: n/a
Max speed n/a
Departure n/a
Arrival n/a

Jeff signed up for a 5 hour hike on the glacier. In his words:

Susan had a cold, so this afternoon's activities were separate. I took a ½ day guided trek up Fox Glacier with Alpine Guides. The glacier is just a short, 10 minute bus ride from our lodge. The guide company provided boots, socks, crampons and, for those unfortunate enough not to have their own raingear, heavyweight PVC jackets.

Fox Glacier extending up the valley

There was a very heavy rainfall a week or so ago that caused severe flooding and significant changes to the area the guides normally take customers. The rains washed away big sections of their established trail through the moraine, and glacial activity removed many of the steps and staircases the guides had carved into the glacier.

the glacier's terminus

The glacier has retreated about 2km since the 1700s, although it had a brief period of advance in the 1990s. As the glacier retreats, it leaves behind "dead ice" - mounds of ice insulated by a layer of rocks. It can take hundred of years for the abandoned ice mounds to melt - they develop tree cover and look like regular ol' hills.

Dead Ice

After a distant glimpse at the "mouth" of the glacier where the river of meltwater exits, we quickly headed up the steep hillside thru thick and surprisingly hot & humid vegetation. I quickly overheated and took off my long-sleeved base layer. I'm not sure how some of the people in fleece jackets and PVC overcoats survived! I think they were waiting for the guide to remove his jacket and lead by example and when he did not, they suffered in silence.

Making our way to the Glacier

We made our way over some fairly rugged terrain (by tourbus tourist standards) and along some steep slopes and got on to the glacier about 1/3 km or so from its terminus.

The mouth of the glacier

Looking down over the mouth at the glacial melt-water

We then had fun hiking around on the ice for quite some time and reached a good vantage point where we could see the ice fall where the glacier breaks off, exposing tall fingers of blue ice. We could also see the head of the glacier about 6km up the valley where the ice river pushes out of a basin formed by several of the tallest peaks in New Zealand. The blue ice color is due to the intense pressure squeezing the air out of the ice, which then refracts blue but absorbs the longer wavelengths.

We heard three different "calving events" (deep sounding booms from collapsing ice) while on or near the ice and I caught just a glimpse of the tailend of one of the collapsing ice chunks. I also picked up a few rock samples (Susan here: yup, we're still collecting rocks. Stupid cyclists.) The rock is a finely layered metamorphic sedimentary rock with lots of quartz - mostly black and white layers, but also some kind of flaky green stone.

Lots of fun! Hiking on ice is quite different than hiking on snow, and I'm glad I had the chance to take this side trip!

Susan here again. While Jeff was off conquering the glacier, I took a much more sedate walk though the woods near the glacier's terminus. Walking the River Walk Trail was like traveling through a rainforest (which, actually, it is). It was a wet, drippy, tunnel-like canopy of greenery with moss clinging to everything. In the low light of the cloudy day, it was a bit spooky. A break in the trees provided a great view of the glacier from top to bottom. After a bit of hunting around, I even managed to find another geocache at the end of the trail.

NEXT PAGE: Fox Glacier to Greymouth