The Top 10 campsite in Fox Glacier is one of the nicest of that chain that we have visited. Big showers, lots of hot water and a good laundry. By the time we left there at 10 am we, and our clothes, were all nice and clean again.
We checked in for our heli-hiking at 10.45, and, after a weather check with the guides on the glacier, paid our money for the trip. We were in a group of 24, divided between 4 helicopter runs. Everyone who had no waterproof jacket was issued with one, and boots, though Mick and I used our own.
It was a relatively short flight to the glacier, but we had some wonderful views on the way up. Most of our group was Chinese, with a sprinkling of Americans and ourselves.
As the helicopters arrived and departed from the ice we all had to kneel on the glacier to avoid getting blown over, or getting covered with ice fragments.
When we were finally all together at the top we were issued with crampons and shown how to tie them to our boots. We spilt into two groups, and we ended up in the group being led by an English lass, Philly. She came from Brighton, and had done her degree in Warwick!
Philly led us single file over the glacier, cutting steps where necessary, and checking for safe routes and interesting features to show us as we went. The only way to get any idea of the scale of the glacier was to see other groups in the distance, but it didn't take long before people became just barely indistinguishable dots in the distance.
After Philly had carefully checked out the safety we were allowed to go and pose with this ice cave. They are formed because of the differential speed of the glacier at the top and the bottom of it's length, about 3m a day at the top, and 50cm at the bottom. They can collapse quite quickly, hence the caution before posing underneath one.
Sometimes we just had to wait while Philly checked out a possible route. We got friendly with an American couple while walking, Matt and Elizabeth (who is in this picture). They were as wowed by the glacier as we were!
This was a view into an ice tunnel.
And here is yours truely in it!
As you can tell we had wonderful weather, apparently very rare, and it was hot and sunny all day. We started off with jackets, but were soon walking in t-shirts.
Other groups arrived at intervals, but it was sometimes quite hard to see the helicopter from a distance.
Philly took us further up the glacier from were we had landed, to where the crevices were getting larger and larger. Often there was what looked like deep water, but was actually mushy ice below a thin layer of water. You could stand on it and look like you were walking on water, yet a stick would still penetrate it.
Even though we had taken drinking water with us, we soon junked that and refilled the bottles with pure glacial water.
We walked for about 3 hours, though never very fast. More of a stroll than a tramp. Then we returned to the helicopter pick up point, where Mick and I consumed the sandwiches we had taken with us. Best setting for a picnic ever!
This was the view of the lower half of the glacier as we flew back. You can just about see the point we were standing on on Wednesday when we walked up to the glacier view point.
Back at the base we could see the clouds begin to gather below Mount Tasmin.
We said goodbye to Matt and Elizabeth, then continued our drive north. We stopped briefly at the small hamlet of Harihari, the site of the landing in 1931 of Guy Menzies, an Australian who was the first to fly solo across the Tasman sea from Sydney to NZ. There was a replica of his biplane there, and a history of his life and flight.
Then we drove on to our campsite for the night, a small area of freedom camping on the coast near the Kakapotahi beach. We were on our own when we arrived, and were delighted to discover that there was a light wind, and no sand flies!!
Since then we have been joined by 2 more vans and a group in a tent. We walked along the beach after dinner and watched the sun go down, then it was back to the van to write today's blog. No plans for tomorrow, we'll see what happens.
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Looks like a fantastic trip on the glacier. You were really lucky with the weather. Al the helis were grounded when we were there - just did a walking trip from the bottom, in the rain!
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