New Zealand gets all its weather from the West and when the clouds hit the Southern Alps, they have to rise and so it rains. The West Coast is one of the wettest places in the world, with over 10 metres of rain falling per year in some areas. When we drove into Fox Glacier, the service village of the glacier of the same name, the West Coast was certainly living up to its reputation!
Guy and I had wanted to do a heli-hike up the glacier, but due to the weather it was cancelled and instead we decided to go on a four hour guided walk with a dozen others from the trip. We were suited up with waterproof gear, boots, socks and crampons (which stop you slipping on ice), before being driven to the foot of the glacier to start our ascent.
It continued to rain as we made our way up the valley to the glacier's snout, but after 40 minutes it cleared off and it became a really enjoyable hike. Our guide let us up the glacier through a pre-cut route which while well defined, was still pretty tough going.
I've studied glaciers at school before, but I'd never seen one in action, let alone walked around on top of one, so it was great to be able to go and experience something that you've only ever read about. On our way back down, we heard several loud groans from the glacier, followed by a huge chunk of ice the size of a small car falling off the front of it. Fox is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world at an advance of a metre a day, but I never expected to actually see it change quite so suddenly! Our guide had only ever seen a piece of ice fall of in such a way once before, so I guess we were very lucky in that respect.
Just as we got back on the Flying Kiwi bus, the heavens opened again and we drove through the rain to neighbouring Franz Josef, the sister glacier to Fox, where we stayed the night at a hostel.
