Glaciers, Southern Alps

December 15, 2011

Glaciers, Southern Alps

Wednesday, November 16^th

Glacier day – this was a busy and beautiful day. Hiked three trails at Franz Joseph glacier in AM, walked the Lake Matheson loop trail, drove to Fox Glacier and walked to the face, then drove down the coast to a coastal walk down to a penguin area – great crashing waves – but discovered what sandflies are – nasty biting little creatures – no penguins out and about.

So a few more details on this very full and spectacular day. We were at the Franz Joseph Glacier trailhead by 8:30 AM and at the glacier before the masses arrived in their tour buses. This is one of the big stops on the tour bus route, so if solitude is what you are after, this ain’t the place. But we beat the rush and have some semblance of quiet before the storm. It is a spectacular morning. We also did the Sentinel Rock walk and the Peter’s Pool walk, which got you to a reflective pool with the Franz Joseph glacier in the background (Of course, pictures to follow). After the Franz Joseph experience, we decided to head to Lake Matheson, where there is 1.5 hour walk with fabulous views across the lake to Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. One of the viewpoints was called “The view of views” – so I guess they thought it was pretty doggone special. The views were indeed phenomenol (the pics are nice, but in person it was much better). This was our favorite hike of the day, hiking through lush jungle like terrain with phenomenal views of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman, craggy peaks each around 12,000 feet or so high. The ocean, tropical vegetation, major glaciers, and peaks over 12,000 feet high all within a few miles of each other, make this according to Lonely Planet virtually unique in the world. I guess you can see why we are impressed – and a beautiful day to take it all in, which in this neck of the woods is not routine, as it rains a lot here. The Franz Joseph glacier is currently advancing, unlike most glaciers in the world, and usually advances about a meter a day but sometimes can advance 5 meters in a day. Nowhere else at this latitiude do glaciers come so close to the ocean. So on to the Fox Glacier which by this time it is socked in with clouds, but we do get to hike up to within 80 meters of the face.

We read about a hike that takes you to the coast where Fiordland crested penguins breed, so we continued south to Lake Moeraki for another 1.5 hour return hike (most hiking times are listed as return times, i.e. the round trip time) that leads to Monro Beach. The hike was the most incredible “jungle” yet, leading to an amazing beach with dramatic crashing waves, but no penguins. We were to find out later that seeing penguins is often about timing – as many of the species of penguins are out at sea during the day feeding, only to return in the evening. We did, however, have our first encounter with sandflies. These are indeed nasty little creatures that leave lasting itchy bites - in NZ they are found on the west coast, particularly in Fjordland (Milford Sound, etc.). They seem to like Donna a bit more than me, unfortunately for her. Donna noted “that she would love to see penguins in the wild”. It would take a bit longer for her wish to come true, but it will come true later.

Stopped at Knights Point lookout for a few pics before heading to our campervan site for the night, an old fashioned no frills campervan park south of Haast. Fixed dinner, visited with a young Canadian couple from Toronto who were traveling with their 10-12 month old, and watched part of a political debate on TV, while we fixed dinner. (As I indicated earlier, they are holding national elections while we are here). So a very long, full and rewarding day.