Another Day, Another Glacier

Two glaciers in two days is not too bad in the sight-seeing stakes.  Fox yesterday and Franz Josef today, both close by  and both easily accessed.  Called “Franz” by the locals, it was named by the surveyor Julius von Haast for his Austrian Emperor Franz Josef 1.  Known to be New Zealand’s wettest town, the torrential rains washed away both the airstrip and the bridge back in 1982 when over 1.83m of rain fell in 72 hours.  That is probably why a Bailey Bridge still spans the Waiho River at the town entrance.

This way to Franz Josef Glacier

Five of us enjoyed a pleasant 5km drive up the Access Road which took us through more glorious West Coast rain forest.  Pauline decided to stay back in camp, as she rather overdid it yesterday.  The car park was full to overflowing with day trippers, just like us, and we stopped to read the “Daily Update” about weather conditions and how far we would have to walk to the viewing point about 1.5 hour return.  The usual warnings about staying safe and not leaving the road were displayed.  Rocks and ice frequently come tumbling down and a board related the story of when a rock fall buried the glacier car park some years ago.

The daily update

It was very easy walking indeed, and the path was much smoother and far less rocky underfoot than the previous day when we walked up to Fox Glacier.  After meandering through a very pretty path through the bush, we arrived at an extremely wide shingle riverbed, about half a km wide, at a guess.

Wide shingle river bed

There was still a way to walk until we reached the glacier mouth, glinting blue in the sunshine.

Our first glimpse

A couple of waterfalls came cascading down close to the path, close enough for us to clamber down for a photo shoot.

Down by the waterfall

The ice was still calling us, so we rejoined the line of people walking towards it, while an equally long line of people were trudging back to the car park.  The glacier had pushed a huge mound of shingle in front, and we noticed some foolhardy people climbing to the top.  We had visions of the shingle pile collapsing on top of all the climbers and burying them all.  Large amounts of snow fall and compact at the head of the glacier and as water seeps in over several years  the air is expelled and the snow granules slowly compact to form the blue glacial ice.  The glacier grinds it’s way very slowly downwards, grinding up rocks and shingle as it travels.

Franz Josef glacier

Watching the melt-water tumble along, we saw several small icebergs caught up against the rocks.

Iceberg in the river

Back we walked along the path, and we commented on the variety of accents and different languishes we heard as various groups walked along in the sunshine.  Look who arrived at the car park first and was waiting for us.

Geoff sitting on a rock in the sunshine