Trip: Post #19 Glaciers to Fiords

Whilst NZ has about 6 million people and something like 40 million sheep, it also has an estimated 80 million possums! Introduced from Australia for fur they have now reached near plague proportions and (what a surprise) they are doing serious damage.

The government's response is somewhat controversial. They send helicopters over heavily possum-populated areas and bomb them with carrots... Whilst the high-velocity root vegetables might kill one or two, the aim, in fact, is to get the possums used to eating the free veg then after a while they drop a load poisoned with 1080. The controversy lies in the fact that not just possums like eating carrots and the 1080 poison is indiscriminate so much of the wildlife in these areas is decimated. A lot of Kiwis in these parts enjoy hunting and a number of them have lost dogs to the poison too, some of them having to put their beloved pooches out of their misery themselves. Pesky possums!

On a lighter note, I saw this sign in the loo at a Caltex fuel station. I still can't decide if it is proof of a Kiwi sense of humour or if they really need this helpful guidance...

So, half way down the west coast of the South Island are two glaciers: Fox Glacier and Frans Josef. (I think there are more than 1000 glaciers in NZ but these are easily accessible). Having weighed up the pros and cons of each, I decided to head for Fox which is just a few kilometres further south. The drive there was incredible, by amazing Coastal views, mountain passes and forests, albeit it through pouring rain for the last section.

Fox Glacier feels entirely like a tiny ski resort (although there's no skiing to be had here at any time of the year). The only reason to be here is to see the glacier and in true Kiwi style there are numerous ways to do so... Walk on it, fly over it, fly over it then walk it, skydive near it etc etc.

I decided to skydive over it. No I didn't, I opted to join a guided walk with Fox Glacier Guiding. They were excellent. We were a group of 12 and Melissa, our guide, was very knowledgeable. 'Charlie', the bus below, took us 5km down the road armed with our instep crampons and alpenstocks.

The glacier is 16km long and, bizarrely, it terminates less then 200m above sea level, within temperate rain forest! These glaciers only exist because of the crazy levels of precipitation here (I think the township gets 6-8m of rain per year and the snowfall in the mountains is many times this). They also move at around 10 times the usual pace of a glacier and whilst Fox is currently receding, when advancing it does so at around a metre per week! All pretty cool.

First proper view of the ice after about an hour's walk along the valley.

And on to the ice.

It was a very cool day and great to experience a glacier so close up like this, seeing the power it has in displacing and moving rock and even hearing it creaking sometimes! (The O'Level geography terminology came flooding back, Mr Milnes will be pleased to know)

Steps cut by the guides...

A very rewarding day and very lucky to enjoy the whole thing in the sunshine considering it rains at last 200 days per year here. Cause for a celebration...

I think I'd hit a period of "travel weariness", exacerbated by the foul weather on the way to Fox. The 'fix' was booking two nights in one of the smarter hotels in Fox (ok, potentially the smartest...) along with some decent food in Cafe Neve. A bit budget-busting but very much needed!

From Fox, it was south to Wanaka which sits on Lake... Yep, you've guessed it... Wanaka. It's described as Queenstown, twenty years ago. I didn't go to Queenstown twenty years ago but whilst I really liked Wanaka I suspect I won't like Q'town now!

It poured for the first four hours of the journey from Fox... To get to Wanaka, which is more inland, you have to cross a mountain range and the change in weather and climate once down on the other side is staggering. From the west coast which gets metres and metres of rainfall a year, you get to the 'other side' to find the brown grass, total fire ban and parched vegetation of Wanaka which hasn't seen rain in months!

Heading through the cloud...