No Fixed Abode: Glaciers

Thu 21 Jan 2016 - Glaciers and the Hokitika Gorge

A much better day today. We awoke from our campervan township to brighter skies and no rain - in fact we could even see some of the summits. After the usual morning routine we headed off for the Fox Glacier, just a few miles away, and we arrived nice and early at the car park, which had been made from a stones and rocks piled into an embankment at the side of the valley floor.

As the retreating glacier had left a steep sided valley behind with just the meltwater stream flowing through it, the only route was along the river bed. Heeding the many warning signs of flash floods, rock and and ice falls we set off on the short walk to the glacier face, initially along a raised causeway made of the same stones and rocks as the carpark and then along the riverbed itself. By this time the clouds had descended to cover the surrounding peaks but we still had dramatic views along the valley and the waterfalls at every side emptying into the river.

A short while later we rounded a corner and there it was, the face of the glacier. Like most NZ glaciers, at this altitude, it is not the pristine white of text books but dirty and grey from the eroded rubble brought onto to it by the streams along its length. Also unlike the Tasman Glacier glacier, we’d seen weeks ago in Mt Cook park, the face was not sheer, as it does not terminate in a lake, but rather a slope of slowly melting, broken and crevassed ice. Big and spectacular all the same. It was very strange to see this ice river flowing amongst tree lined hills. Glaciers are normally confined to high altitude, cold mountain sides but the face of the Fox is the lowest and closest to the sea at this altitude, thanks to the heavy precipitation of this area, and it flows very fast. Even so there were markers all the way along the valley, including the entrance road, showing where the glacier had reached in the past. Indeed a photo taken just six years ago showed significant signs of its retreat. More evidence of global warming.

Returning to the van we set off the few miles for the Franz Josef Glacier (FJG), Fox’s big and more popular brother. On the way out of the Fox township - little more than a row of eateries, shops and helicopter flight providers - we noticed a couple of young hitch-hikers at the side of the road with large rucsacs, who were also going to FJG, so we pulled over to pick them up. They were from Colorado and had been travelling around NZ for 5 months, Yvonne was pleased to have someone new to chat to and kept herself busy on the short journey.

At FJG we said farewell to our young friends and they walked off to the face carrying their large bags, we felt for them. After quick showers we also set of on the slightly longer walk along another spectacular, and larger, valley. Like the Fox the path was basically along the bed of the old glacier but the meltwater river was much larger and roared alongside us the whole way. Even from distance the glacier looked more impressive and at the final viewpoint we could see the large sloping face with its main body stretching up into the mist. As the FLG moves at 1- 8m per day we hung around to see if any of the ice fell off the face. It didn’t but after a long wait the clouds parted momentarily and our patience was rewarded with a view of the cleaner ice of the main flow disappearing up the mountainside.

Leaving the glacier we headed out through the township, which also a larger version of Fox, and once again found the same young Americans looking for a lift so we picked them up and took them a couple of hours north to their campsite at Hokitika. After dropping them off we travelled the twenty odd miles to the Hokitika Gorge, where we planned to spend the night.

The car park was labelled ‘no camping’ with the symbol of a tent struck through. Did this also mean campervans? We weren't sure. Either way we were very hungry so we had dinner and discussed our options. Our next destination, the Pancake rocks at Punakaiki, were some distance away and high tide, when the blow holes are at their best, was at 1030 the next morning so we decided to view the gorge now and drive straight there. Stepping out of the van Glenn discovered it was another sandfly haven so Yvonne stayed inside settling for a look at the photos on his return.

The gorge turned out to only be a short boardwalk away and the turquoise water a slow moving river rather than the raging torrent we’d been expecting. Pretty and colourful all the same Glenn took some bite damage at the waterside while taking photos, despite wearing long sleeves and trousers. Good job Yvonne stayed home.

With dusk approaching we set off for, what turned out to be, quite a long journey eventually arriving in darkness and going straight to bed.