New Zealand: Day Four

Phew, already half way through. And still more adventures to cover! Hope that you're still with me, and possibly reading this blog. Probably not. Anyways, Sarah and I got up at the crack of dawn and drove down first thing in the morning to Fox Glacier. We managed to catch the sunrise on the way down (pictured left). The view on the lake was gorgeous! The water was now unbelievably still, and while it was an overcast day, it was brilliant! Below is a sample of what we looked at.

After the quick hike (again), we made it to the starting point of the glacier hike. Our group gathered around our guides, and we were given socks, boots, and crampons for the journey. Then we jumped on an old school bus that was designed like the old buses they used in the 50s and 60s to get people to and from the glacier.

Now I don't feel like writing too much about it, but glaciers are really interesting objects. They are basically very slow rivers, as rivers move 100,000 times faster than a glacier. I picked up on lots of interesting facts that I now don't remember or are hard to explain. At various points as we walked up the trail towards the glacier, the guide would point and indicate that the glacier had been up to this point at some time or another.

Anyways, the hike onto the glacier took ages. It was an intense hour and a half walk up winding steps that had been put into the side of the mountain. There was even a 150 meter walk along the bluffs with nothing but a 300 foot drop onto some rocks. The valley the glacier was set in was quite the geological feat. I was impressed to say the least.

So once the hike was over, we threw on our crampons and were on the ice! It was such a bizarre thing to do; I always associate ice with slipping and falling. To walk on it and have that not happen is unusual. After about 10 minutes of walking around I got used to the crampons and how to best utilize them. So our guide took us up and around the different paths that were cut into the ice. The glacier itself is gigantic:

The whole experience was unlike anything I'd ever done before. Quite obvious though, because I've never walked on a large block of ice before. I definitely recommend it sometime, especially in New Zealand.

After we finished there we hopped in the car and drove up the coast. Our next destination: Greymouth. We took our time going up the coast, stopping a couple times to admire the beach views and to rest. Once we got to Greymouth we went to a grocery store, picked up some pasta for dinner which we cooked at the hostel. Once we were done eating, we went to the beach for the sunset which was almost all covered by the clouds. Blah. Then we called it a night.