14 - 15th February

Saturday 14th February

Beautiful day. Drove northwards through Central Otago valleys lined with vineyards. We had sampled a local Pinot Noir the previous evening and it was impressively good.

Then onward first beside Lake Wanaka and then the stunningly serene Lake Hawea before stopping at the Blue Pools at the confluence of two rivers where the boardwalk overlooked deep pools with large rainbow trout swimming around, then Fantail Falls where visitors had surreally piled the flat schistose pebbles and cobbles of the dried river bed into vertical cairns. The road followed glacial valleys surrounded by majestic mountains including the snow topped Mount Cook in the background.

Crossing the impressive Haast bridge, we reached Fox Glacier. The snout was about twenty minutes walk from the car park. Streaked grey with morraine but deep blue where crevasses cut into the face.

Then northwards to find our rather cramped Bellavista motel at Franz Joseph. The motel booklet includes this anonymous poem to indicate the pluvial nature of the area.

It rained and rained and rained
The average fall was well maintained
And when the tracks were simply bogs
It started raining cats and dogs
After a drought of half an hour
We had a most refreshing shower
And then most curious of all
A gentle rain began to fall
Next day but one was fairly dry
Save for one deluge from the sky
Which wetted the party to the skin
And then at last the Rain set in

Sunday 15th February

Booked a half day trip up the glacier with Franz Joseph Glacier Guides. They provided socks, boots, waterproof jacket and crampons, then took us by coach to the glacier car park. Then a 2.6km walk along braided river deposits and through brush along the valley side to the glacier snout. Steps had been cut up the ice face and rope handrails attached to ice screws. We put on our crampons and ascended several hundred metres up and about a kilometre along the glacier. We looked into deep blue ice and climbed along crevasses. It was incredible being up on the ice surface and the crampons work very well. It is difficult to believe that your feet are going to remain where you place them on a steep ice surface, but they do. Altogether, it was a five and a half hour trip and we were tired but happy by the end of it. After our return, it started to rain.