To Fox Glacier + Lake Matheson

Bright as a new penny, this day, in an area known for its rainfall. Before we leave Franz Josef and our upscale rainforest campground, a quick shot of the resto/bar on site...whose slogan tells it all.

It's Thursday and we're heading south just 30 K to Fox Glacier, Franz Josef's twin. Not that miles mean much here. It's a twisty hairpin-edges-go-nowhere drive and Art manages expertly, the caravan in tow behind us.

I forget occasionally, my nose buried in maps, that you're not right here with us, friends. Here's the route from Hokitika to Franz Josef and Fox. Pull out on the map to see how little ground we've covered in days and days (just as we like it) and where in NZ we're situated.

Sun lights up the turquoise glacial meltwater.

It's a brilliant ride, hugged by rainforest.

Fox Glacier is even tinier than Franz Josef, but more nicely situated somehow, with a companionable small-town feel.

We find a perfect campground nestled at the base of the mountains in full sun. The mountain air has warmed and everyone we meet tells us it's an unlikely day for winter here.

PB+J while we review the helicopter tour brochure. Today's the day, we decide, clear and bright, perfect for flightseeing.

The tour we've chosen, in red, lasts 40 minutes, setting down for 15 minutes so passengers can walk on the stable neve (add two accents and pronounce neh-VAY) of Fox Glacier. The neve is the head of the glacier, where snow is compressed into ice. Fox's neve is 45 meters (147 feet) deep.

See the  Eiffel Tower for scale? I wonder if it's even possible for humans to grasp the scope of this grandeur.

Even though it's brilliantly clear and perfectly calm on the ground, when Art goes to sign us up he learns that it's windy in the mountains and the copter pilots aren't going up today.

But here's one thing I love about NZ: there's always something else to do or see. No flightseeing today, but there is Lake Matheson, which provides one of NZ's most famous views, mirroring Aoraki/Mt Cook and Mt Tasman in a perfect as-above-so-below.

It's just a few Ks from our campground, so let's go.

Just as promised

Mt Tasman to the left, Aoraki/Mt Cook at right. Aoraki measures 12,218 feet. Compare to Mt Ranier, highest mountain in Washington State, at 14,411.

While the mountain was known to Māori centuries before, the first European known to see Aoraki / Mount Cook was Abel Tasman,^[4] on 13 December 1642 during his first Pacific voyage. The English name of Mount Cook was given to the mountain in 1851 by Captain John Lort Stokes to honour Captain James Cook who first surveyed and circumnavigated the islands of New Zealand in 1770. Captain Cook did not sight the mountain during his exploration. (More at the link on the agreement to include the Maori name.)

Our path wends its way around Lake Matheson, with a boardwalk over a marshy end, where spears of NZ flax (harakeke) border our walk.

Could you say no to this sign (and the 67 stairs)?

Lake Matheson was formed about 14,000 years ago when the Fox Glacier retreated and left a depression that later filled with water.

Ducklings pattern the perfectly still lake.

What a luxury, strolling in nature with flora explained.

 

The path back toward the carpark and cafe borders a farm. Remember, Aoraki at right, taller than Mt Tasman (11,473 feet) but farther away.

In the midst of all its wild nature, NZ is utterly civilized, with lovely cafes adjoining simple walks like the one we took today.

Full sun, a view to love...and a flat white.

There are an astounding 140 glaciers here in Westland/Tai Poutini National Park. You can see Fox Glacier town at about 10 o'clock below, the white on this map indicating glaciers.

Back at camp, it's cocktail hour. Each day in this country is a gift.

We walked the quarter mile into town to see how long it will take us tomorrow to reach heli HQ, where we're scheduled for the tour, weather permitting, at 10 am.

Isn't this fire station crisp?

Hike To Franz Josef Glacier

Hiking to Franz Josef requires a smashing breakfast: avocado, tomato, prunes, NZ craft bleu cheese, seven-minute eggs, and cauliflower with fermented cabbage, olive oil, and capers. Ready to walk!

At the trailhead, conditions are updated daily. Rough riverbed travel is on point. Need to know: Maori called this glacier Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere. The glacier was later named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria by the German explorer Julius von Haast in 1865.

En route to the glacier, we took a spur to a viewing point. See the stubby glacier, perched up there in the middle of that mountain saddle? Goodness, this photo makes it look like we're heading for the witch's castle in the Wizard of Oz. It was raining when we left our campground, but lifted along our walk. You'll see.

Together with the Fox Glacier 20 km (12 mi) to the south, it is unique in descending from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level, amidst the greenery and lushness of a temperate rainforest.

Now here's the heartbreaking part, a kind of a sad flipbook of glacier loss over the years.

 

 

 

  

2010

(the five-year difference between this and the next is startling)

2015

Reading John Muir's enthusiastic 1929 description sharpens the loss of this once-noble monster.

Waterfalls feed the (currently low) riverbed.

This hike was so different from the ones we've been taking, over riverbed littered with stones, boulders, and slabs. It appears that Art is not far from the glacier face, but it took a solid hour to walk to it, the trail climbing at the end so we could approach the glacier's vertical face.

Flowing glacial ice scours the valley, breaking off large boulders and grinding smaller rocks to dust. At the terminal face, meltwater is milky with rock dust.

Looking back, a different drama

Hints of turquoise 

in this close-up of glacial ice

And we're still walking. If the sun had been out, we'd have fried. It was a pleasant 50 degrees F.

Some north-facing rocks had this burnt orange color. Lichen?

Nice trail here. The signs remind us that almost literally under our feet lies a great crack in the earth--the Alpine Fault. Along the crack, two plates of the earth's crust collide and slip past each other, a collision that pushes up NZ's Southern Alps (which Maori call Ka Tiritiri o te Moana) 10-20 mm each year. The height and location in this region is ideal for glacier formation.

Signs tell the story

Looking back from the top of a more vertical path (see the ant-people down there?). The overcast day was kind of thrilling.

As close as they'll permit you to go. This cheesy cut-out ranger cracked me up. But the next picture is my absolute favorite from our adventure.

I asked these guys if they'd pose, pointing toward the cut-out. They didn't say a word--just lined up and made the hand gesture as though it were the most normal thing (though I saw a look in their eyes I've seen before in my nieces' and nephews' when I propose something batty). Also, Trevor, is that you in the middle?

They call this hike a 1.5 hour return (meaning the round-trip takes that long), but if you stop to make 134 photos and marvel at how tiny you feel, add at least 40 minutes.

To Glacier Country

Tuesday morning we hitched up the caravan in goldrush town Hokitika and pointed it south and east toward the towering peaks of Tai Poutini National Park, where ancient rainforests meet the highest mountains in NZ.

 Traveling from one place to the next is always engaging here.

Clouds shroud the near mountains while cattle graze the agricultural countryside alongside palms, evergreens, and deciduous trees.  For a visitor, this apparently dichotomous tableau never ceases to amaze.

We stopped in the hamlet of Hari Hari to check in at The Willows, specializing in hand-spun knits and craft work. We'd met Ingrid, daughter of the proprietor, at a secondhand shop in Hokitika and she urged us to visit.

We're very glad we did. Art got a possum-wool hat and some possum socks and we both found lambkin-soft sweaters of possum, wool, and silk.

The unique property of possum fur is that each fibre is hollow. This gives excellent insulation qualities, ensuring that possum fur and merino wool garments are light and incredibly warm.

Back on the road, endlessly shifting landscapes.

16 feet of rainfall on these alpine summits. Enormous volumes of snow fall annually, feeding some 140 glaciers, the main ones being Franz Josef and Fox.

Here's tiny Franz Josef Glacier Township, population 350 in winter, thousands during summer.

We're staying in the Rainforest Campground, which actually is in a rainforest and offers sites like this one (cocktail table and chairs a nice touch).

We walked the town, hungry for spice, heat, and an adept hand, and we certainly found them at King Tiger.

 

Ingenious timer served with my lemon-ginger tea (in an elegant insulated glass).

 
The man who served us said "Uh, I think you ordered too much." Butter chicken, red curry pork, vegetable fried rice, and bhajis. To savor again in days to come.

Tomorrow, a hike to Franz Josef Glacier.

NZ Campervans

This picture we posted yesterday drew quite the response. I actually didn't know about Wicked Campers--I thought this woman had painted on the provocative idea herself.

But it turns out Wicked, an Australian campervan rental company, has been riling up the standards people for a while. Via the NZ Herald...

Rental company Wicked Campers has again fallen foul of the (Advertising Standards Authority) with offensive slogans painted on its vans.

The Authority upheld three complaints against the company, and again criticised its failure to offer any response to these and numerous previous complaints.

One can only imagine how this company might respond if it ever did. Obnoxious.

There must be dozens of campervan rental places in NZ because these things are ubiquitous (click here for a constellation of choices). They come in all shapes and sizes and they're an excellent way to tour the country with your sleeping/eating quarters tucked right in. Plug in at a holiday park and you're powered up for lights, fridge, and heat, bed and toilet too.

These green and purple Jucy campervans look like a pox on the enviro. They come in all shapes and sizes, replete with their annoying misspelling and Marilyn Monroe-type logo. And it seems they've now entered the US market, more's the pity.

Campervans are an ideal choice for a limited NZ holiday. Given our length of stay, buying a car and renting a detachable caravan was a better (and far less expensive) move. Speaking of caravans, you don't see many on the road this time of year, possibly because NZ caravans aren't insulated and are used mainly during the summer months.

And NZ campgrounds! We are spoiled for life after spending time in NZ holiday parks/campgrounds. From top-tier places to the humblest, virtually all offer large communal kitchens (with ranges, toasters, fridges, and freezers), showers, laundry, and toilets. Every one we've encountered has been exceptionally clean and well-tended, and for this reason we aren't using our own on-board toilet.

One more from Wicked. Sad to see the fleet doesn't match the quality of the van at top.