We drove off at 9am, ready for a long drive after 3 days “rest” in Queenstown. The familiar ding dong sound came up to remind us that the driver has not fastened his/her seatbelt (a familiar sound we got too used to daily). We first drive to Wanaka to feed the ducks as well as ourselves. Sunny day as opposed to the gloomy Wanaka we saw the other day.
Then we drove on alongside Lake Hawae to the west coast.
The sun is totally relentless. All the way sunshine throughout. The sand flies kept biting us when we tried to go to the loo at toilet break. The beaches at the west coast are not the sandy beach like the kid we have, mostly shingle beach with fallen/dead tree branches spreading throughout.
It was 4pm before we finally reached Fox Glacier. Fox Glacier village is a one street town. There is not much to walk about in the town, unlike the slightly more developed Franz Josef village. We went to a restaurant Cook Saddle to order take away hokies and fries.
Our queue number.(Pictures courtesy of K)
M got her peanut butter in the minimart next door and pretty contented with the thought of peanut butter sandwich.
Gavin, the Mount Cook View Motel owner has a dog named Muffin and a cat named Garfield. He also has some lambs and a pony. They are making noise right in front of our unit.
(Pictures courtesy of K)
Gavin told us that he is able to get us the Fox Glacier flight cheaper than if we book through the offices outside. We compared the prices and it is true. M went straight ahead to book through Gavin and got herself a prize – free upgrade from 20 minutes flight to 30 minutes to include a glimpse of Mount Cook as well. The three of us will only console ourselves with the usual 20 minute flight instead.
Mount Cook View Motel offer free wifi. I used it to surf the net and realized that Singapore is suffering a huge MRT breakdown. The scolds and curses filled the whole tweeter timeline.
At night, we couldnt open the door or window cos the bugs were all attracted towards our unit with the lights on. U can hear the sound that the bugs kept hitting the glass door.
I was sleeping in the living room when half way through I heard a voice that said : the room is ours.
My hair stood.
What?!
I started to feel cold suddenly. Could it be????
I dared not move an inch. Dared not even turn. I was hoping that J or K or M go to toilet and I can ask for rescue. They never did. Only K’s snores are loudly audible in the quiet background.
I managed to catch some sleep before the I hear the same voice with the same sentence again. This time I think I finally figured out.
It is Kevin’s macbook. It is saying “u still have 16 hours” (of battery life). WTH, scared myself siah. Woke up and went to pee, laughed at my sillyness. In between sleeps still manage to dream a weird dream on glaciers overflow and break glass.
18 Dec 2011 Sun
We went to the office and realized that a couple already waiting for us. They ushered the 3 of us to leave immediately for the chopper ride (M’s later departure, ours earlier but we didn’t realize it was that early). Nice and cool weather, the pilot maneuvered his chopper carefully till we landed on top. Managed to only stay on for 7 minutes before we were ushered down again.
View of Fox Glacier from the main road:
K took some videos of our heli ride.
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
While waiting for M, J and K opined that the girl who served at the Hobnail Café is quite cute. I gave her name Lana, cos she looked like the girl in Smallville but think she is just so so. K and I wonder why J and M think she is pretty tho.
Went to Lake Matheson and it took us nearly 40 minutes to reach the reflection island.
“Famous for reflecting a near-perfect image of Aoraki Mount Cook in its waters, Lake Matheson was formed around 14,000 years ago when the Fox Glacier retreated from its last major advance towards the sea. The glacier left a depression that later filled with dark ale-coloured water. Discolouring of this water was caused from leaching from organic matter on the ancient forest floor that surrounded this lake.”
Source: About Lake Matheson, © 2012 AA Tourism 101 Must-Do's for Kiwis
url: http://www.aatravel.co.nz/101/info/Lake-Matheson.htm
Lotsa ferns and moss along the trails, our knowledge learned from Satya in Cameroon Highland about the growing stage of fern come in really useful. One has the luxury of studying the whole cycle from a curling green tube (baby fern), into a giant fern in Lake Matheson trail as the ferns there are all at different stages of growth. We also saw this curling green tube in the movie Alice in The Wonderland in Queenstown, think the cartoon artist has likes baby fern too!
Saw a long-finned eel smiling at us in the lake near the Reflection island. We would have missed it if not for the sharp eye of M and her daughter. By right one could photograph reflection of Mount Cook in the lake but all timing + weather dependent if I may say. We took another 40 minutes out. K couldn’t wait and hence he hitched a ride to do his sky diving.
We went on to the Gillspies Beach. Very windy non-tarred road and sunny in the end. Shingle beach, tsk tsk. Strong wave though. M lost his water bottle to the wave as she was caught unprepared when the big wave washed ashore. Luckily it is just the water bottle this time.
We drove to Franz Josef Glacier. Even though the two villages are just 20km apart, the hairpin turns and the road made it at least a 40 minutes drive. Upon reaching, we saw throngs of Sunday crowd returning from their hikes. Franz Josef Glacier is straight through glacier, and further from carpark. The waterfall is nearer to the path though. Some hikers left a chunk of clear ice they brought down from the glacier on the path guiding poles and we took it for photo.
Block of ice brought back from the glacier by some joker:
By the time we went back to order our hokies and fries from the restaurant, it is already 630pm and K have walked home. We went back and see his skydiving pictures and it was awesome. The 470NZD he paid for the fall is all worth it.
J couldnt find his camera cap. He said he prolly go back to the fish and chip and see if he has dropped it there. Should have tied the cap to the camera.
19 Dec 2011 Mon
Today J is going for his ice climbing so I sent him to the Fox Glacier Guide office. Then M sent me and K to the same office an hour later for our full day glacier walk and J was still fitting his gear in the same room. Cole was our guide (Stephanie is leading another group and trailed behind us). We went to the boot room to exchange for boots and wore them on. Cole told us this place will be the last toilet stop for the entire day.
The bus drove us from the office to the car park of Fox Glacier. On the way, I saw coloured pools with water same colour as the one in Jiuzhaigou in China.
Cole brought us up to a hill path and then brought us down to the Starting point of the glacier walk. Along the way we took some sips of the glacier water just like how Cole demo. As if performing magic, he went up to a huge rock and get us our crampons. We have to strap the crampons into the centre of the soles. I didn’t do it correctly the first time, and Cole used his strong hands to help me do a tight fit, less I fell while walking on the slippery glacier.
Once we have the crampons fitted, we started walking up. I grabbed a walking stick to help me with the ascend. I started to feel warm and took off the jacket I brought with and put it into the duffel bag I borrowed from office. Cole just walk with his khakis. Wonder how he stood the cold.
Along the way, Cole told us many interesting tales. He told us that the glacier might expand and retreat depending on the snowfall some years ago. Cliff face has vertical lines – showed that the fault lines are vertical. Cliff might collapse anytime. He said there was a video in youtube that shows a cliff face collapse at Franz Josef Glacier – I couldn’t locate it though. Conditions at the glacier changes slowly. During stormy weather, drastic change can happen – glacier chunks might fall off, river might swell to several times its original volume. (in fact K witness a snow chunk broke off when we walked in from the car park but didn’t tell anyone till we discuss during the dinner that night, a scene I missed.) 4 Malaysians were caught during a storm that see the river water suddenly overflow and stranded their car. I laughed when he told the story involving the Malaysians and he was puzzled. I told him cos I am a Malaysian. The two Danish guys told me afterwards that they have just been to Malaysia and liked their stay there very much. The Indian couple came from Singapore, and the guy is working in a bank.
We treked on the ice. Cole was busy using his axe calving out steps for us to walk on.
A video taken by K to show Cole making steps as we go along.
Another video to show the glacier:
I asked him who made the well carved steps that greeted us when we first started our trek. He pointed to two red shirt Fox Guides – those were the advance party that helped made this glacier a hiking heaven before all the groups came by. There were times where the trail is only wide enough for a person to squeeze between two blocks of glaciers. There are also times we saw holes with water filling them and wonder what will happen if we misstep and one leg started to go in. The crevices are scary. According to the chopper pilot that fetched M yesterday, the crevices can be 100m deep in between. When my eyes got too tired looking at the surreal white and blue, I will look up to the green and grey mountains flanking the glacier. The line separate the lush greenery from the grey pebbles is where the glacier once was. According to Cole, the glacier used to be so high in volume that, it extends up all the way to the hill path that we came from and even blocking it at some point, where the guides have to use axe to chop away the ice and clear the path for hiking teams to pass. So much has the glacier change.
Finally, we came to an ice cave and this is where we will have our lunch. Everyone took turn to go into the ice cave. It is surreal to be inside an ice cave. J is having his ice climbing nearby.
We ate the hokies before the rain dripping by. The Danish guy asked him if we were heading back now and Cole said that it is kinda lame to come to only this height. I naively point to the top of the glacier and asked him if it is possible to hike till there. Cole laughed and said he will give me the title of hero if I can do so.
After lunch, Cole went away to carve out steps while we were shivering in the rain. The blue rain jacket that Fox lent us are really good – keep you warm inside and keep the water away. It was quite sometime and we still had not see Cole – we started to get worried. The Indian guy went ahead to look for him, and saw him carving steps at some distance away. The few of us went to where the Indian guy went. Cole came back and scolded us sternly. Never walk about without his guidance. Always wait for him while he is carving out steps. We dipped down our heads. Safety always comes first.
We walked further up and it get more and more tricky. K fell at one point. Slippery it is. Especially when we walk downhill. One wrong step and nothing can stop your automatic descend. I asked Cole if everytime he will bring hikers through the same path and he said no, as that killed the joy of guiding. He prefers to try different routes and discover different things. To show us what he meant, he descended at a point where there is no steps carved out, and he has to carved out a new path with the help of another guide. That guide was guiding another group and one of the crew actually went away from the group to see a hole nearby, earned herself stares from both guides. Never venture anywhere without first seeking permission from a guide.
I asked Cole what would happen if we fall into one of those crevices/holes that were filled with water. He told us at first you will have difficulty breathing cos the hole restricts you from falling through and your body got squeezed. As your body heat started to melt the ice and as you struggle further, you will start to fall further in but able to breathe easier. Someone will have to rescue you fast. His boss ever fell before and it took two guides to lift the big guy out. Luckily, he never have to do any rescue as the group that he led never got into trouble.
We have finally came back to where we started and it is time to return the crampons and walking sticks. We took a shorter path to the car park this time. Drizzling.
By 4pm we were all back to the office to exchange for our boots. K and I went over to the cafeteria to have some hot chocolate and scones. J is still out doing his ice climbing. We waited for awhile before M came. After the usual hokies + fries order, we went back to the motel. Gavin has kindly offered us some discount since we stayed an extra night.
J finally came back at 730pm and he told us it was an exhilarating but tiring experience. He was with this lady who happened to have done skydiving with K together yesterday, hers was at a higher height though. Small world! And he happened to make friends with these two German doctors and exchanged views on the education systems of Singapore vs Germany. And there is even a US Marine reserve that were applying for a helicopter pilot position. Belaying him was tough according to J, he went up the steep slope like a spiderman, poor J. ice climbing needs the use of ice axe and the full crampon on the boots to help someone ascending the icy cliff face while your buddy will belay below. The crampons that K and I strapped on are covered only mid section of the soles, his covered the entire boots, so much less slippery. Lotsa arm muscle strength and repetitive chopping movement required.
I have added some youtube video links regarding the two glaciers:
1. Franz Josef Glacier Calving
2. Fox Glacier Collapse into the pro-glacial channel.
3. Fox Glacier pool jump
4. Bottomless crevices in Franz Josef Glacier
5. Fox Glacier icefall
6. Ice fell off Franz Josef Glacier
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