Glacier Tramping

Hiking on Fox Glacier

We had a nice continental breakfast at the Homestay before our 1/2 day hike on the glacier. Rhubard grows all year long here, and they don't mix it with strawberries. We were not sure what the day would bring because of all the rain yesterday. The forecast was rain today as well. We got outfitted at the Fox Glacier Guides, with boots, rain jackets, rain pants, hats and gloves. The boots were pretty well used. Bob thought his had been resouled a few times and Mikes actually had a hole in them.

The five minute bus drive took us to the glacier river bed. There were 18 of us from all over the world. Hong Kong, Denmark, Switzerland, UK, US. We had to be able to understand the guides english. Even though the language in New Zealand is English it can be a challenge to understand them. We got lucky with our guide being from Ohio.



The tramp started out with 600 steps up and down through the rain forest before we got to the glacier. The steps were all different sizes/heights, this made it slow going. Plus we stoped about every 10 minutes to catch our breath. At one point we walked on a ledge of a cliff with a 100 meter drop. Chains were anchored into the rocks to hold on to. We were supposed to put everything in our pockets/back packs and keep on our hands on the chain. Mike had an infraction, he let go of the chain long enough to take a picture.



We stopped before the glacier and put cramp ons on. The glacier looks weather beaten, but it's actually slippier then we think. Two guys from the Fox Glacier Guides are on the glacier all day every day creating steps. If they don't chip away at the ice, the steps will disappear in about three days. One of the gals fell four times.



We were super hot and sweaty through the forest. We cooled off quickly on the ice. Especially with wet boots, sweaty clothes and the wind. We tramped on the glacier for about an hour. By the time we were leaving the ice there were three other groups of trampers climbing up the ice. I'm glad we decided to be the first group of the morning so there weren't so many other people around.

Back through the river bed, our guide had to radio a 'rock spotter' there is a guy who watches for rocks falling. We had to hurry through the 300 meters and be on the lookout for falling rocks.




We keep hearing about tours to see Glow Worms. We wanted to do one while we were in Te Anau, down by Queenstown. It had rained so much the caves were closed for glow worm viewing. Trish at the B & B recommended we tramp through a route outside town. It was only 20 minutes long. She recommended we do it while it was raining, we were in a rain forest after all. After dinner we went down to the path it was after 8PM so it was dark. We saw glow worms. Imagine a glow similar to a fire fly, only it's a worm. It was neat, I'm glad we didn't spend $100/person on a glow worm tour.