We woke up to the sun ray! Yay, for the first time in 3 days we can finally see the sun! Hope it stays the same for the rest of the day!
Driving out from the free camp at Gillespie Beach, back to Fox Glacier town....
As we reach the shop, there was a brief on our walk and then we all get ready with fitting the boots, fleece socks, waterproof bag and raincoat. We hopped on the shuttle bus and head to the mighty Fox Glacier!
A short 10 minutes drive from the shop to Fox Glacier. With Zara, our tough guide!
OMG So beautiful and so excited!! We can see the glacier from far, let's go NEARER!!
Our full day hike to the glacier, very soon we will reach the ice! Like this group in the picture above...
After an hour of hiking through the hills, we need to wear the crampons to hike on the icey part =) So excited...!
It is our first time wearing these sturdy hiking boots, and Angie's boot doesn't fit her feet well, causing bruises in each step! Gosh, so painful, but have to endure through it for the magnificent views! And sadly, the guide doesn't even has a plaster =(
Following the guide's footsteps, safety first!
Along the way, the guide will stop for a while for picture session. So we don't need to be too busy taking pictures while walking!
Fresh ice water! Unlimited refill =)
Watch out!
Our super girl guide, carving the track for us! Her arm is so powerful! We can be assured of our safety while walking on the glacier as the Fox Glacier Guiding has few guides checking the walking tracks every morning!
Hiking through this narrow gap.. Awesome!
Toorak Waterfall, the highest in this area!
Looking back at the valley below....
Playtime!
Oh no, I'm stucked!!! Help...
Our full day hike only reaches the lower ice fall which is around 200-300 meters. There are guided tours for reaching the higher ice fall, which means more amazing views and ice caverns (we can't see the ice caves from this full day walk), but also much more expensive. We are contented with this already! =)
Our lovely tour mate from Hong Kong, Cat. She is also on a working holiday but in Australia, so flying over to NZ to spend her hard earned Aussie Dollars!!!
It's a really good guided walk for 6 hours and we get to spend more time and see so much more than the half day walk. The half day walk costs $115 with only one hour on the glacier which is not worth it. We brought our own lunch and eat it under the rain sitting on the glacier :) What an experience!
There are also walking tracks if you are not taking the guided walk that ends at the glacier terminal like the one we did at Franz Josef. But to see the glacier from this whole new perspective, exploring the fabulous glacier formation up close is just AMAZING~~~
At the end of our guided walk, we felt so exciting even through the night. We couldn't ask for more! Overall, the weather is quite clear with few showers but its better than what we expect it to be. We managed to capture this amazing glacier on camera and it is just our lucky day!
West coast is one of the wettest place in the world and it had been raining heavily for days since we came here. It is just unbelievable that we missed the sun so much! The moment we are back to our van, all our wet clothes hanging around were dry! Finally... Thank god!
Initially, we were all flat out at the caravan park, resting our feet while cooking dinner. As the sunset draws in, Peter can't stop but notice the clear sky today, so he rushed out and drive to the country side to capture some photos! He came back just in time, and I have just finished cooking. Only one conclusion in his mind, we have to go see the sunset together! So we packed up our dinner box....
And enjoy our twilight dinner with white wine and Southern Alps =) Million Dollar View~ ~ ~ Speechless....
This cloud formation, it started with only one small round cloud, then a second one to the right, then the third, and fourth and so ON! So cute =)
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