Fox Glacier Day Walk

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....

We have been praying for few days now for the good weather , for the glacier hike! We've paid $165 pp for the Fox Glacier Guiding full day walk***** (entitled for YHA discount!). Initially we planned to go yesterday, but after the weather forecast we've decided to postpone it a day cause it seemed better with few showers (better than the rest of the week). Fingers crossed! they say the best time to visit the Westland Glacier is during winter, where there are more clear skies and less tourists.

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 =)

Fox Glacier and Lake Matheson

The small township of Fox Glacier*****, with two rows of shops....

With the gloomy weather, we head off to Lake Matheson*****, nearby Fox Glacier which is supposed to be very beautiful during sunset when its calm water reflect the Southern Alps. It's 1.5 hours walk around the lake. The first stop, jetty viewpoint. The weather is quite good to us, giving us this good shot despite the continuous rain.

Peaceful lake....

It is a nice place to spend the afternoon and sunset. Green forest and calm lake. If the sky was clearer, the beautiful sunset colors on the Southern Alps would certainly be amazing! But we were happy that it didn't rain heavily, so we can still gaze at this perfect reflection!

The reflection is so clear that this picture was rotated the other way round! Did you notice it???? =)

Tonight, we stayed at a free camp in Gillespie Beach near Fox Glacier. It is one of the free camps in DOC booklet, but recommended only for normal cars (not caravans) as the 12km road into this historic gold mining site was too winding and narrow! It took us quite a long time to get into the campsite, about half an hour if not mistaken. There was little space, probably can accommodate 10 vans, some beach camp site and pit toilet. The next morning, when we drive back out to Fox Glacier, passing the winding and narrow road, there were many campervans parking beside the road side. That's great, saving that one hour return drive, possible for campervans with toilet, and not for us!

Must See > Fox Glacier full day walk!

Franz Josef Glacier

Sneak peak of Franz Josef Glacier!!

After an awesome wet day at Punakaiki yesterday, we decided to stock up some rainproof gear at Greymouth. We bought our gum boots and rainproof pants at Warehouse store in Greymouth, we are ready to hit on the rainy spring weather, bring it ON!! 

We stop by the small town of Hokitika, to view the famous NZ Greenstones (Pounamu in Maori) or Jade as we called it in Asia. The West Coast of NZ is abundant with this valuable stone, where the Maoris would use them as gifts, hunting tools and fishing tools. Since it had been raining for few days, we tried our luck in picking greenstones by the Hokitika beach, because after some rain, the stones will be flushed from the rocks in the forest by the river, flowing to the sea of West Coast then subsequently ended up on the beach!

Under the rain, we search and search, for fun really because there are all sorts of funny looking stones! Real good fun, and we ended up taking a small bag of stones, one even resembles the map of OZ! (Sigh, the pictures for Hokitika had mysteriously GONE from our hard drive*** )

After that stone hunting, we continue to travel to the World Heritage area of Westland National Park. Tonight we had to stay in at Franz Josef Terrace Motel caravan site because it had been raining for 2 days non stop and we need to wash and dry all our wet clothes. We had a busy night trying to dry the clothes in the dryer, 3 rounds of drying but still not wet. So we had to hang everything inside the van since it is still raining outside. The rain and humidity makes the clothes even wetter =.=

Next morning, we went to the Franz Josef Glacier Valley walk***** 45 minutes of easy walk which leads us to this spectacular Glacier formation! Although it's raining and cloudy, we can still see the glacier clearly. The blue color reflected from the glacier is so pretty!

Waterfall gushing from the valley, as the continuous raining brings more and more waterfall!

Can't believe that we will walk the Fox Glacier (which is half an hour drive away) tomorrow! Franz Josef is so beautiful from far, what's more if we can touch it! Many years ago, back to when the Europeans settled here, there were glaciers up to where we are standing on this picture above. The glaciers have been eroding and changing everyday. 

OMG such adventurous lads!!! Rafting at this quick milk glacier river, in the rain! So exciting to watch to maneuver through those rapids and rocks!  

Look at the Valley, once shaped by the glaciers, which had been eroded after many years!

From the glacier, another 20 minutes walk to the Sentinel Rock***** gave us a good idea of how the glacier eroded. 

FACT: the glaciers is formed by the weight of fresh snow which falls on the neve surface (catchment). This squeezes any air pressure to create soft ice. Once most of the air is forced out, hard blue ice is created.  It's blue colour relected is not the colour of the glacier, but caused by the absorption of both red and yellow light (leaving light at the blue end of the visible light spectrum). 

Maori story on the Westland Glaciers: Tears of the avalanche girl: Hinehukatere loved to climb in the mountains and she convinced her lover, Tawe, to join her even though he wasn't an accomplished climber. He climbed with her and was killed by an avalanche. Hinehukatere's tears flowed and flowed down the mountain and froze, forming the glacier of Franz Josef and Fox Glacier.

Lake Matheson @ Fox Glacier