The Glaciers

Looking out from our bedroom window in the morning the clouds had completely surrounded the mountains behind us in Haast although it still was not raining (three weeks without rain - some sort of record for this part of the country). The landlady predicted rain for the next day or two, however. We set off for our pre-booked accommodation at Franz Joseph Glacier Township, dropping in on Fox's Glacier on the way for some brunch and a cost check on flights and helicopter rides. Fox's Glacier was a bit of a disappointment as not only were there no polar bears but no free mints either. We decided to wait and see what Franz was like.

It did start to drizzle by the end of the journey but that was the worst of it for our entire trip this side of South Island so I guess we were lucky. What was more limiting as far as the glaciers were concerned was the omnipresent cloud cover. We decided to wait until the morning before investing in any aerobatics but Franz Town itself was a lot of fun to stay in. Plenty of happy hours, bars and restaurants and a really neat Internet cafe made out of a converted school bus - straight out of a cyberpunk novel (for any of you who read that stuff).

As the weather improved the next day we drove up to the Franz glacier. Although this was one of Linda's "must do" visits to NZ the overall experience was, dare I say it, a little disappointing. It probably had a lot to do with:
a) the fact that, in the middle of the dry summer months, the glaciers are a little bit grubby; no pristine snowfall to coat the dirty 'ol rocks and mud dragged down by the slow moving ice and the tops were frequently covered in cloud,
b) we saw far more spectacular glaciers in Alaska when they were covered with loads of fresh snow that glinted in the indigo and ultra-violet in the low-slung Arctic sun (shows what spoiled brats we are!),
c) unlike most glaciers in the world, these are actually retreating. Three centuries ago, they were at least 4 klicks closer to the sea than they are now. You can see from the picture that the interface wall is now at the foot of the slope to the valley. In front of that is 4 or 5 klicks of rubble-strewn valley where the glacier used to be. Since it was still a nice day we risked life and limb to walk across the rocky valley to the interface wall.

Having just said that the glaciers were a tad disappointing you really have to see the sheer mass of ice looming down at you from this vantage to have your mind changed. We could see that local guides had cut steps into the wall to enable local tours to the interior (despite roped-off cordons warning of unstable ice moving at toward you at 1 metre a day). As this was already a two hour walk (something I didn't warn Linda about when I set off so I was in trubbs again), we declined not to go that extra mile. Also, because the clouds had settled over the top of the glacier again, we decided against investing in our planned helicopter trip to the summit, something our respective bank balances breathed a sigh of relief over.

A bit foot-weary, we set off to our next destination, Graymouth. As before, the roads were in good condition but extremely snaky. The one thing I am impressed with over here is the culture of Letting Vehicles Pass. Mobile homes, caravans, coaches, tractors, you name it, all pull over on straight roads and let the faster cars pass. Everyone is so damned civilised! As the journey was only about three hours, we punctuated it with scenic stops and allowed the local sandflies to attack me en masse. Three days on and the bites still itch.