In between the fruitless kiwi (bird) searches, we spent Friday exploring the Westland Tai Poutini National Park. The west coast of South Island routinely gets hammered with buckets of precipitation. Storms move in off the Tasman Sea and hit the Alps dropping an average of 5 metres of rain a year. The seemingly endless rain leads to snow falling in the glaciers’ accumulation zones which fuses into clear ice at 20 metres depth and flows down valleys as glaciers. Nowhere else in the world at this latitude do glaciers come so close to the coast. Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers are stereotypical cascades of ice grinding down towards the sea. During the last ice age (15,000 to 20,000 years ago) the glaciers reached the sea. Their terminal faces are now several kilometres inland but are advancing.
We had been watching the weather report closely and wisely chose a day that was clear for our glacier adventure. We signed on for a half-day morning trip on the Franz Joseph. When we checked in at 8:45 am we were outfitted with rubber boots, wool socks, crampons, wool cap, mittens, and raincoat after attesting to the fact that we were fit enough to walk over uneven rocks, ford streams, and climb ice stairs. We got on the big red bus for the short drive to the car park near the terminal face.
We walked along a bush trail for about 1 km.
One of the most amazing things about these glaciers is the tropical rainforest that surrounds them.
We had glimpses of the glacier while on the bush trail.
Our group of 35 was divided up into three groups according to self-assessed fitness levels. Doug and I chose group one – the fittest group that could move the fastest.
We out hiked many of the young things on the tour. We still had about 1 km to walk along/in the river bed before getting to the glacier face. We were able to rock hop across the few small streams we needed to cross. No deep stream crossings were necessary.
It was a warm day so no need for coat, wool cap, or mittens. The amount of melt water coming off the glacier was impressive.
Now that we had reached the glacier face it was time for crampons. Troy, our guide, chose me to demonstrate the proper technique for securing crampons to boots. The straps tie on the outside of your foot to avoid getting caught in the crampons.
Doug got to put on his own. Note the lovely fashion statement of having pants stuffed into socks. That is so the crampons do not catch on your pant legs.
We are going to be climbing the ice stairs, the narrow white line in the distance behind us.
Climbing up was hard work. I was glad to have water in my camel back.
Our loop trail allowed for some exploring of crevasses, caves, and more stairs.
The view from the top was magnificent and worth every drop of sweat.
The full sun was rapidly melting the stairs so Troy had to use the ice axe to clear and re-form a lot of the stairs we climbed during the morning. I was thankful to have on rubber boots so my feet stayed dry in the torrent coming down the stairs. Troy also had to re-sink several of the ice screws holding the ropes in.
After about 2 hours on the ice, down we went off Franz Joseph and on to Fox after a lunch of venison pie in a café in town.
The trail to the Fox Glacier face crossed a small stream bed and had great safety signs.
We concluded the day with the classic fabulous vista of Mt Cook (highest point in NZ) and Mt Tasman from Lake Matheson. The view was spectacular with the late afternoon sun on the western faces of the peaks. The wind had come up a little bit so the ripples in the lake prevented the perfect photo of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook reflected in the water.
We had been watching the weather report closely and wisely chose a day that was clear for our glacier adventure. We signed on for a half-day morning trip on the Franz Joseph. When we checked in at 8:45 am we were outfitted with rubber boots, wool socks, crampons, wool cap, mittens, and raincoat after attesting to the fact that we were fit enough to walk over uneven rocks, ford streams, and climb ice stairs. We got on the big red bus for the short drive to the car park near the terminal face.
We walked along a bush trail for about 1 km.
One of the most amazing things about these glaciers is the tropical rainforest that surrounds them.
We had glimpses of the glacier while on the bush trail.
Our group of 35 was divided up into three groups according to self-assessed fitness levels. Doug and I chose group one – the fittest group that could move the fastest.
We out hiked many of the young things on the tour. We still had about 1 km to walk along/in the river bed before getting to the glacier face. We were able to rock hop across the few small streams we needed to cross. No deep stream crossings were necessary.
It was a warm day so no need for coat, wool cap, or mittens. The amount of melt water coming off the glacier was impressive.
Now that we had reached the glacier face it was time for crampons. Troy, our guide, chose me to demonstrate the proper technique for securing crampons to boots. The straps tie on the outside of your foot to avoid getting caught in the crampons.
Doug got to put on his own. Note the lovely fashion statement of having pants stuffed into socks. That is so the crampons do not catch on your pant legs.
We are going to be climbing the ice stairs, the narrow white line in the distance behind us.
Climbing up was hard work. I was glad to have water in my camel back.
Our loop trail allowed for some exploring of crevasses, caves, and more stairs.
The view from the top was magnificent and worth every drop of sweat.
The full sun was rapidly melting the stairs so Troy had to use the ice axe to clear and re-form a lot of the stairs we climbed during the morning. I was thankful to have on rubber boots so my feet stayed dry in the torrent coming down the stairs. Troy also had to re-sink several of the ice screws holding the ropes in.
After about 2 hours on the ice, down we went off Franz Joseph and on to Fox after a lunch of venison pie in a café in town.The trail to the Fox Glacier face crossed a small stream bed and had great safety signs.
We concluded the day with the classic fabulous vista of Mt Cook (highest point in NZ) and Mt Tasman from Lake Matheson. The view was spectacular with the late afternoon sun on the western faces of the peaks. The wind had come up a little bit so the ripples in the lake prevented the perfect photo of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook reflected in the water.
No comments:
Post a Comment