Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers

Our last full day on the West Coast we took a long day trip from Punakaiki to the glaciers - first Franz Josef Glacier, and then Fox Glacier.  We were treated to pretty views east toward the Southern Alps for most of the way.  Here was the typical scenery, and occasionally we would cross over one of the many crazy blue rivers flowing from the mountains.

The most memorable moment of the drive however, was a sequence of "Dad roadkill driving" that spanned about 10 minutes.  First we came upon a grouping of about 4-5 seagulls on the road picking at a dead possum.  Pete didn't even slow in the slightest, didn't swerve, and yes, took out two of them on the front of the car.  Loud thuds reverberated through the car, and the kids and Jen all had a good laugh at how cavalier or even giddy Pete apparently was for this roadkill.  (Pete claims that he wasn't about to swerve or veer for a seagull, particularly given that they are not exactly endangered. He also noted that several times in his teen years he was assaulted by likely relatives of those birds while at the NJ shore.) Anyway, no more than five minutes passed when we rounded a curve and there was a beautiful New Zealand falcon also laying claim to a very sleepy looking possum in the middle of the road.  And it was only 100 feet or so in front of our car which was going 100km/hour.  An immediate cry of terror arose from Jen and from the children in the backseat (they apparently thought he would mow down the falcon as well) but Pete actually slowed, swerved and didn't really come that close to the falcon, who took off as gracefully as a bird can while holding half of a possum in its claws : )

The rest of the drive to the glacier was uneventful at any rate, and soon we were tramping toward Franz Josef Glacier.  The DOC changes the route year to year, season to season, and even day to day - due to the changing nature of the glacier and the river that flows from it. At the beginning of the hike we saw many pictorials that showed the change in size of the glacier over the years.  From Wikipedia...

"The glacier is currently 12 km (7.5 mi) long and terminates 19 km (12 mi) from the Tasman Sea. Fed by a 20-square-kilometre (7.7 sq mi) large snowfield at high altitude, it exhibits a cyclic pattern of advance and retreat, driven by differences between the volume of meltwater at the foot of the glacier and volume of snowfall feeding the névé.

The glacier advanced rapidly during the Little Ice Age, reaching a maximum in the early eighteenth century. Having retreated several kilometres between the 1940s and 1980s, the glacier entered an advancing phase in 1984 and at times has advanced at the phenomenal (by glacial standards) rate of 70 cm a day. The flow rate is about 10 times that of typical glaciers. Over the longer term, the glacier has retreated since the last ice age, and it is believed that it extended into the sea some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago."

The tramp was mostly flat and along the river, with steep hillsides that the retreating glacier had carved out over the millennia.  On one side of the valley, we saw some pretty waterfalls cascading down toward the river basin.

On this day the DOC halted all tramping routes quite a ways from the unstable face of the glacier.  These pictures make it look as if we got pretty close to it, but we were in reality probably a half mile away.  It is huge and this picture doesn't do it justice.

And here is one with the whole family in front.

The only people actually allowed on the glacier are with guided groups who have permission from DOC to go onto the glaciers, but we decided against this option in favor of seeing both glaciers.  So, we tramped back to the car and drove a bit further down the coast to Fox Glacier.

Our experience and walk here was pretty similar to at Franz Josef, but we will just add the following from Wikipedia..."Fox Glacier falls 2,600 m (8,500 ft) on its 13 km journey from the Southern Alps down to the coast, with it having the distinction of being one of the few glaciers to end among lush rainforest only 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level. Although retreating throughout most of the last 100 years, it has been advancing between 1985 and 2009. In 2006 the average rate of advance was about a meter a week. In January 2009, the terminal face of the glacier was still advancing and had vertical or overhanging faces which were continually collapsing. Since then there has been a significant retreat, with the 2009 high level clearly visible as vegetation line on the southern slope above what is left of the lower glacier today.

The outflow of the glacier forms the Fox River. During the last ice age, its ice reached beyond the present coastline, and the glacier left behind many moraines during its retreat. Lake Matheson formed as a kettle lake within one of these."

We particularly like this picture from Fox Glacier because if you look carefully you can see people on the trail walking up to it (they look small as ants from this vantage point.)

It was pretty amazing to experience glaciers, beaches and rainforest walks all in one relatively small area over these two to three days.  What a country!