nzflag(1).gif (9615 bytes)        S/V TETHYS

Touring New Zealand by Car
December 2000, February, March 2001
Glaciers: Fox and Franz Josef
Southern Alps seen from about 20 kilometers away. We drove to Gillespie Beach for a walk and got a great view of the mountains. The tallest just right of center is Mount Cook and Mount Tasman is just left of center. Mount Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand.

Left of Mount Tasman is Mount Fox and the Fox Glacier.

Mount Cook view (7190 bytes)
Fox Glacier view (10472 bytes) The Fox Glacier taken from about 20 kilometers away. This is the best view possible without taking a helicopter flight.
Fox Glacier is the longest in N.Z., 12 Kilometers. The road ends at a parking spot only just outside an avalanche area. From there the terminal face is about an hours walk over rock falls and rushing streams.

The glacier looks far more impressive from a distance. Up close it is quite dirty with pulverized rocks clinging to it.

 Fox glacier (14717 bytes)
Terminal face, Fox glacier (14431 bytes) We approached to within about 500 meters. A cold rushing stream stopped us because we were not wearing our hiking boots.

Still, we got close enough to see where the Fox River rushes out from Beneath the glacier.
The water looks like liquid cement from the silt ground up by the glacier. Fox glacier runoff (17837 bytes)
another swing bridge (20170 bytes) Another suspension bridge. This one is rated for 1 person at a time. It looks substantial but is quite long and can set up quite a swing.
We got up real early on our second day here and went for a walk around Lake Matheson to see the reflections of the mountains for which this lake is famous. At 8:30 A.M. after a 45 minute tramp we were rewarded with this view of Kiwi scenery. Mount Cook reflection in Lake Matheson (8872 bytes)
abandoned dredge (22446 bytes) Lake Matheson was just the first walk of the day. After a second cup of coffee we drove down to Gillespie Beach for another walk. This time along a track that had been used by gold miners in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Gold had been mined here until 1945. All that we could see are the remains of a dredge and a tunnel. The dredge had been used from 1936 to 1945 to dredge along a lagoon. At the height of gold mining in this area more than 6000 people lived at the beach. It is very hard to see evidence of all these people today..

This short tunnel was dug through a glacial moraine to allow miners passage around a bluff. Before the tunnel miners used the beach, but only at low tide. Many horses were lost when miners mistimed their beach passage around the bluff. The tunnel allowed miners passage at all times.

Today the tunnel is a dead end at a viewing platform above the beach. There is nothing much to view here. The seal colony is another 2 hour walk and the penguins are out at sea at this time of the year.

 tunnel (9285 bytes)
Franz Josef Glacier (15266 bytes) Franz Josef Glacier is about 25 kilometers further north and somewhat smaller that Fox Glacier. However it is easier to approach the terminal face along the rocky river bed. It took us 3 hours to hike to the terminal face and back again to the carpark.

There are several streams to ford along the way and one particularly nervewracking avalanche area.

 
Vlad fording a stream with the grace of a ballet dancer. Note the girl guide hat and the macho hiking boots.

We had a great day for this hike. The weather cooperated and the sky was sunny and tempatrature warm. Many other hikers wore shorts.

 Vlad fording stream (20097 bytes)
Terminal face, Franz Josef glacier (17281 bytes) There is a large cave at the terminal face where the water rushed out from beneath the glacier. For safety reasons the terminal face is roped off and only guided tours are permitted to go further and onto the glacier itself. These tour cost money and we opted to self guide.
There are falls off the surrounding mountains along the trail to the glacier. These provide more water to the river than the melting glacier.

Franz Josef has been advancing since 1984 and has moved about a kilometer closer to the parking lot. This is a dynamic glacier because it advances and retreat much faster than the average. It only takes five years for a particularly heavy winter to cause the glacier to advance whereas average glaciers take about 10 to 15 years to react to snowfall.

 waterfall at Franz Josef glacier (13114 bytes)
Click here to return to South Island Map
Charts Journals Ocean Voyages Cruising Tips Photos Tethys Yours truly Links Home Page
1