Glaciers and Hiking

We had an extremely wet and blustery full day drive from Abel Tasman. The west coast is notoriously wet but we were rewarded with beautiful scenery along the route despite the poor weather conditions and non-stop downpours. The coast is wild but the fauna sub tropical which makes for wonderful views.

About halfway down the coast are the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers where we were heading. We had planned to do the drive over two days (about 6 hours) but we had a message from a friend already in Fox Glacier town saying that after a 22 days straight of rain and cloud, the outlook for the next day was for sunshine for just one day. With Thomas in a good mood and sleeping well we decided to push on and made it to Fox by evening where we were rewarded with a beer with our friend, Emma. 

We are so glad that we pushed on as the weather the next day was fantastic and we were rewarded with great views. 

We headed straight out for a look out point of Fox Glacier and around Lake Matheson, known as the reflection lake. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to hike around the lake and it was an easy walk with Thomas in his Tula carrier. 

We managed then to head up to the bottom of Fox Glacier where it is possible to hike close to the base. Unfortunately due to the recent poor weather causing icefall risk, it was only possible to hike to within 1km of the base, which was a 10 minute walk, whereas usually it is possible to get much closer. We still got a great view though. 

After a rather pleasant picnic lunch in the sunshine we headed to the Franz Josef Glacier for even more spectacular views. We were able to hike up much closer to the foot of the glacier, a moderate walk in baking sun taking an hour and a half return but it was very much worth it. Thomas slept most of the way in his tula carrier, apart from when he was kicking me to tell me to go faster! 

What struck me about both glaciers was the overwhelming feeling of nature being in control and how tiny we are. The photographs of how much the glaciers have retreated, even over the last 5 to 8 years, are scary. It saddened me to think that by the time Thomas is old enough to come back on his own, he may be unable to see the glaciers from the ground. Already it is too unsafe to hike up without a helicopter to take you up to the top. The glaciers are becoming small as global warming takes hold. The stark reality of this plain to see in these two towns who make their living out of the glaciers. Will travellers come to see them any more in a few years? Who knows? I’m glad to have seen them whilst we had the chance.