In order to split up the long journey from Mount Cook to Fox we overnighted in Wanaka (Mount Cook to Fox took 10 minutes in a plane. Honestly, these Kiwis need to start digging some road tunnels). Wanaka is a big centre for hiking (or tramping as they prefer to call it), and for this reason we called in at Puzzling World on our way out of town, for a couple of hours of getting lost in a maze, and feeling very disorientated in the various illusion rooms.
I'd booked us in for a full day's walk on Fox Glacier. Tempted as I was by the Helihike option, you have to draw the line somewhere. So after being issued with sturdy leather boots, we boarded the bus to the access car park. It takes about an hour and a half to walk across the terminal moraine, then up through the bush on the side of the glacier, before one is finally issued with crampons for the ice walk.
A set of stairs has been cut in the steep side of the glacier, giving you easy access onto the top surface. Every morning a couple of the guides come down early to recut the steps on the constantly moving (and melting) ice flow. Given that it's about 16°C at the glacier base, it's melting fast, so there are many melt water steams and quite a few deep ponds.
We soon moved beyond the pristine ice steps, and our guide hacked out rudimentary steps with his large pick, as we followed behind, occasionally getting sprayed with ice debris. The surface is a mishmash of crevices, and progress is fairly slow as you pick your way up and down. We lunched on the ice, before continuing our journey, stopping at a large ice tunnel. Here a rope was attached to a ice hock, and we took it in turns to lower ourselves in. Three hours later and we returned to more permanent ground.
We spend a second night in Fox Village, before making the short journey up to Franz Joseph Glacier. There are a number of walking options from the carpark, and we took the shortest. Franz is steeper than Fox, making its appearance from a distance more impressive, as it slithers down the valley. The warning signs at the glaciers are only too germane, as only couple of weeks ago two Australian tourists were killed after they walked right up to the terminal face of Franz, shorty before 20 tons of ice fell on them.
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