Crushing the ice (NZ Day 9)

21/9/2011

Woke up to a clear and chilly morning. Had scrambled eggs with toast and sausage for breakfast. We packed some muesli bars and bananas for our lunch during the hike later in the day. Then left and went to the Fox Glacier Guiding building to check-in for our full day glacier hike.

Outside the glacier guiding building. Weather looking good!

We were greeted by our guide, Tyler, who is from California but came over here to New Zealand to work. So, after some introduction, we got our boots from the boot room and waited for the others in the group to get ready. The bus soon came and we got on board and drove to the carpark of Fox Glacier. The group had 10 people plus 2 guides.

In the boot room waiting for our guide.

Getting our boots at the counter.

The bus that drove us to the glacier car park.

About 5 minutes before reaching the car park, we felt a bump as the bus drove along the road. Tyler then explained that we had actually crossed over the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates which caused a little bump over the road. The active movements of the plate is also a reason for the beautiful mountains seen in New Zealand and also the multiple earthquakes that struck badly on Christchurch.

From the carpark, we had to walk for about 1 hour before reaching the terminal face of the glacier, then we put our crampons on for walking on ice. On the way there, Tyler told us lots of information about glaciers and the landscape that were surrounding us. He also told us about the legend of the glacier being the tear of a woman who cried after losing her husband. The start of the glaciers (Franz Josef and Fox) are from the top of the mountain, which was the bridge of her nose which then flows down in opposite directions. Which was quite like it if seen from the air.

On the track to the terminal face of the glacier.

Crossing a river stream.

Seeing the majestic glacier from afar.

Another river crossing, but much nearer to the glacier.

Going up a steep slope that will bring us to the glacier itself.

An icefall that happened not long before we were there, which resulted in the crumbling of the glacier near the end of it.

Tyler went behind a large rock to pick up a pile of crampons and brought us to a comfortable flat ground and taught us how to put them on. After all of us have put on our crampons, he told us on a few safety measures we should take note of and how to walk comfortably and safely with the crampons, and we started our hike on the glacier.

Tyler with our crampons.

All of us putting on the crampons.

Final briefing before stepping on ice.

From the moment we stepped on the ice, the sound of crunching was heard all the way until hours later when we stepped out of it caused by the spikes on the crampons chewing into the ice.

A few of the guides chiseling their way through the ice.

Our group walking in a narrow path.

About 30 minutes into the walk, Tyler brought us to an ice cave/tunnel. It's not really bluish in color, compared to the one that we went at the later part of the hike. Because the ice cave was small, we had to take turns to go down in twos or threes to prevent over crowding.

My brother going down into the ice cave.

The color looks more greenish than blue.

Looking up the glacier. It's really long!

Another guide looking into the valley.

We walked for quite a distance before stopping on an open area in the glacier for lunch. Just a simple lunch actually, a few muesli bars and a couple of bananas. We could actually drink the water from the ice melt and it was a really good thirst quencher because it's so cold and refreshing!

Walking in an orderly single file.

Hammering more ice with the ice axe.

Stopped by on this open space for lunch.

A pool of water that we collected our water from.

After lunch we went much higher up the glacier and found another ice cave, this time much bluer than the previous. The cave was quite low below and there isn't a path down so we waited while Tyler carved some little steps so we could go down easily.

Carving out some steps down into the cave.

Blue!

Thanks to Tyler for the photo!

Like in most places in New Zealand, especially the West Coast, the weather changes very quickly and often drastically. So it wasn't surprising that it soon became cloudy and cold. We were lucky the cloud held on to the rain and didn't release it on us.

Blue sky turning white.

Passing by a huge rock.

The two guides covering up the hole of a crevasse.

We reached the upper most part of the glacier that the guide deemed safe to walk on. Above us the glacier formation is a lot more rugged and was dangerous to walk on. So we just hung around the area and rest for awhile before heading back down the glacier.

The sky cleared up for a short while. The rugged glacier above us that our guide said it was dangerous to walk on.

Heading back down already.

Above a mini crevasse that seem to have no end to it.

Some of the half-day groups on the lower part of the glacier.

Back at the base of the glacier. We took off our crampons and walked back to the bus and drove back to the town. Great day spent on the ice!

Walking the long road (NZ Day 8)

20/9/2011

It's already day 8 into the trip! Goodbye to Wanaka and off to the Glacier Country. We cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast with toast and Kiwi Tea! My brother saw an advertisement about the Kiwi Breakfast tea and wanted to find it in the supermarket and try it. We managed to find it during our grocery shopping yesterday. It's in a box with 100 bags of tea leaves, so that's quite a lot. Breakfast was good for a change from us eating toast almost everyday.

After breakfast, we checked-out and went to the i-Site building at the lake front to wait for the bus. The bus came a little later than the scheduled timing, but soon we were on the bus on our way to the West Coast of New Zealand.

Lake Wanaka.

A short boardwalk further out into the lake.

During the journey, we passed by Lake Hawea which was really pretty. And we also stopped at the eastern side of Lake Wanaka which had superb views, plus the clear blue sky. The weather today was just great!

Lake Hawea.

On the lookout point at the eastern side of Lake Wanaka.

Another view of Lake Wanaka, but nearer to the northern end of it.

Then at about 11am, we stopped at a cafe in a small town called Makarora. I wasn't hungry so I just had a small packet of copper kettle potato chips. Oh, copper kettle makes really good potato chips, you have to try that (if you haven't)!

In Makarora.

The bus outside the cafe.

A tractor driving on the highway.

After 30 minutes, we left the cafe and continued towards West Coast. We passed by the Haast Pass which is a mountainous road with lots of steep turns on undulating terrain. The highest point of the pass is at 564 meters above sea level and after that it was a steep downhill with many turns. The bus had to go really slow to drive through it. Also, while driving there, the bus driver told us that this road has lots of accidents and some including a car dropping over 160 feet into the valley below. That's one dangerous road! No wonder the road has runaway ramps at some points.

A single lane bridge crossing over the Makarora river.

On the unsealed road. Looking quite dangerous especially at high speed!

Stopped for a short walk to the Thunder Creek Falls.

The waterfall after about 15 minutes walk from the carpark.

Looking back at the mountains of Mt Aspiring National Park and the Haast Pass Highway.

Much of the bus journey thereafter was nothing much except looking at the tall mountains disappearing behind us as we went nearer to the coast until we reached a salmon farm and cafe at about 2pm for a short lunch break.

People looking down at the salmon fish tanks.

Each tank has a group of salmon of about the same size. Some are small young salmon while some are huge adult ones.

Then off we went to fox glacier which we arrived not long after lunch, about 3.30pm. We checked-in to Ivory Towers Lodge. The host told us that our room was upgraded for free! She then showed us the way to our room and I was surprised when I opened the door. It was really big with a kitchen and 4 beds. Guess it is a room for a family use but it wasn't occupied so she gave it to us for free.

Crossing over Paringa river.

Arrived in Fox Glacier town!

Ivory Towers accommodation.

We went to lake Matheson after that. It was a long walk on the Cook Flat road from the town all the way to the lake. It's about 6km long which took us an hour's walk to reach there. We saw plenty of sheep and cows along the way. I noticed that the sheep do not bother about us when we walked past them but the cows sure do give a strict menacing stare whenever we pass by them. Almost every single one of them stop what they're doing and just stare!

Saw a small school while walking to the lake.

Looking back at the town.

A little cow staring action.

A farmer driving his motorcycle and his dog (black one near the center) along with him.

Walking the long road to Lake Matheson.

Happy goat is happy!

Ah, finally a sign showing us that we are nearer to the lake since we started off from the town 40 minutes ago.

More cows stop whatever they were doing and looked at us.

After a good long walk, we finally reached the entrance of the track of Lake Matheson. It is a 1.5 hour loop walk around the mirror lake. At some points of the track, the view was great with a nice reflection of Mt Cook and its surrounding mountains.

Crossing the bridge over a stream near the start of the loop track.

A few tourists at one of the lookout points of Lake Matheson.

The mirror image of the lake!

We walked pretty fast and manage to finish the track faster than 1.5 hours as the sun was going to set very soon and we still had to walk back the way we came from. While walking back the sun was setting behind us leaving a beautiful sky we stopped once in a while to look at the view.

The cafe was closed already when we were leaving the place.

This really really big cow kept moo-ing at us when we walked along the road.

Walking back to Fox Glacier town.

Looking back at the road towards the sunset.

When we reached town it was almost 7pm already and was dark. Lucky for us there were street lights. We went to a grocery store, with many of the food being out of stock, and got some food to cook for dinner. When we paid for our shopping and left the store, the owner locked the door behind us and I realised that we were so lucky not to have missed the closing time.

We went back to our accommodation and cooked dinner and rest for the night.