Sharon’s Blog

Both Franz and Fox are basically in existence for glacier tourists. Not much there but tourist shops, motels. hostels, internet places with the coin kiosks, and a few restaurants. The Blue Ice Cafe had an upstairs bar advertising happy hour from 9-10, but we skipped it because we figured there were no locals there as interesting as the ones in Haast.

We were staying at the A1 Rata Grove Motel, my least favorite of all of them in terms of what the rooms were actually like. The guy who ran the place was really nice though. The others were mentioning that they only got one towel apiece in their rooms, but I always had my two, because I was staying alone (one for my body, one for my head). But here, they knew there was just me and there was only one towel. I asked the man who ran the place if I could have another and it appeared in my room before I even noticed. Catherine said her room was huge and cavernous, but the place just had a little run down feel, especially after our neat little Scandavian design rooms the night before. I don’t think there’s much to choose from there though.

We ate dinner at the Landing (pictured, although from another website, not my camera) that night. It had an outdoor pool table, which struck me as strange with all the rain they get over there. They must have a quick tarp or something to throw over it, because you weren’t going to move it anywhere quickly. The portions of food were as huge as Catherine’s room. Jenny and Karsten joined us that night, which was fun. The only problem was that Dave and I ordered the same thing, but prepared differently. The order went in as one with both preparations noted. So – his food never came. We were all mostly done with dinner before Dave’s came. At the end of the evening when we figured out the tab, we had a mystery guest who paid and too much money. When I got a look at things, I figured out that for the same reason Dave’s dinner didn’t show, Dave’s dinner didn’t get charged to the table.

Despite the large portions, everyone wanted dessert. Or, “pudding” as I was corrected by my friends. Now to me, pudding is a subset of the entire dessert range. But no, I was told that puddings have been being made forever, so that’s what we were choosing from – “puddings.” All I know was that I ordered the Pavlova, with fruits and ice cream, wasn’t anywhere near as good as the chocolate Pavlova I made for Sunday Night Dinner a few weeks before. It was more like a giant marshmallow.

After dinner headed back to the hotel. Everyone was a little tired and we were planning to be up early, hopeful for a day of riding ahead…

Here’s our fearless leader – one handed and looking backwards at the crest of the second saddle. As you can tell, I’m no longer on a bike, but back on two feet taking pictures. I made it about 2/3rd of the way up the first hill before I collapsed. Jenny drove me to the top and insisted I ride down. Think that was worse than going up…I wanted a seat belt, especially when I came to the hairpin turn preceeded by a diagonal cattle grate and a car coming in the opposite direction. I suppose it could have been worse – cars could have been passing in both directions. Made it around the corner alive, but then made the mistake of looking out – big, very deep, vista. Kept my eyes on the road only the rest of the way down. Waited there because I wasn’t going to try the second saddle – too long and too steep for me at that point. Helen and I wanted to try the third, but Jenny couldn’t find a place to pull over to get the bikes down until the top. So Helen and I rode down and into Franz Josef together.

I know you’re tired of reading about this thing, but you have to take one last look. It really was the highlight of the trip, getting up there. Did you notice all the waterfalls coming down the sides of the mountains? The different textures of ice? The snow capped moutaintops peeking out of the clouds? The color of the blue sky? If it had turned out to be too cloudy, and we hadn’t gone up on the chopper, I wouldn’t have ever realized what I missed. But it was so incredible, it’s one of the things I want to bring the princess back to see. It’s a must do if you can. I hear Argentina has a similar glacier, coming down into temperate climates, but that and NZ are the only two countries that do. Anyway – I’m glad Jenny’s reaction when asked if whether going up was worth it was so from the gut and positive, or I might have given it a miss.

Imogen, because she gets vertigo, Helen and Dave did. They went to Gillespies Beach instead, which Helen said was the most glittery beach she’d ever seen. The sand was apparently coarse, but she said when you picked it up it had all these glittery specks in it. Dave showed me some photos in his camera later, and they were great. Maybe he can mail me one sometime and I can post it for other NZ enthusiasts at some who might want to have a glance.

When we got down, I was starving. We were eating at the cafe attached to the Alpine Guides place, the Hobnail Cafe. They had these veggie stuffed baked potatoes – corn, carrots, sunflower seeds – and a leek soup that wasn’t served in a turreen, but was so rich that the smaller portion was sort of like getting condensed turreen sized soup. Dave and Helen bought a snack/energy bar there for dessert, which looked really good. More on those later, because I was too full afterwards to have any sweets.

At this point it was finally time to leave Fox and do yet another hilly ride. I wasn’t optimistic, as we had had a full morning roaming around on the mountain, but I was going to try…

While it turned to be a bright sunny day for us up there on Fox Glacier, the clouds never really go away on the west. Or at least they didn’t while I was there. We were just lucky that day and they opened up a path from the top of the glacier all the way down to the sea, so we could get up. But the clouds kept shifting around the mountains, alternatively revealing and hiding different things. Right before we got on the chopper to go back down, they came off the north side, revealing these mini-mountains on the hill. Really cool, mysterious looking creatures.

There wasn’t much life up there. Much higher up is a cabin where you can take trips up and spend the night. Jenny had been up to it for her ice survival course. Said it gets rats – so like everywhere, it seems the rats and the cockroaches can survive the elements. She had to be dropped deep into a crevasse (we didn’t see anything you felt like you could fall in and never get out, but I think this one had that feel) and then be pulled up by her partner. Right before you get pulled up, I guess they have to let the ropes go and drop you a little deeper. While Jenny was waiting for that moment, she said she was fairly convinced that she was just going to fall all the way in. That split second and a few feet sounded as though it felt like being dropped miles into the earth. The one form of life we did see up there was some type of midge. They apparently live on some algae that develops on the ice.

Oh yeah – remembered something else about arches. They are sometimes formed by the small debris that gets dragged down the glacier. The rocks, because they are black, absorb the heat from the sun, which causes the ice to start to melt and then the water forms the caves and arches. Can’t remember what kind that’s called though…sorry.

There were all sorts of arches Gerard told us about, but since I wasn’t taking notes I can’t remember all the different types. There were compression arches – that I remember. Most of the caves we went through we those, I think. There was another type – the name of which I can’t recall. And I think this was called a sun arch, made – I know you’re all going to be very surprised – by the sun melting through the ice.

The guides had the job of “maintaining” some of the these things. That actually meant hacking ice off of some of these caves and arches as the group went by, with the giant ice pick they also used to make steps for us to walk on. That’s how they keep things from falling apart on top of unsuspecting tourists. Tried to get a good photo of Gerard hacking away at the ice, but the sky got so bright I couldn’t really see anything on the back of the shiny little camera viewing screen, so I didn’t pull it off. Sorry ladies. I was extraordinarily thankful to Karsten as the day went on – without the sunglasses it would have been really tough to handle the glare off the ice. And you definitely needed sunscreen and chapstick up there. It got really, really hot – wanted to peel off another layer, but really couldn’t because my under layer was almost a tank – and it wasn’t that warm. But I was dripping with sweat as I headed down the hill back towards the makeshift helipad. Not sure if I told you, but it’s basically a few rocks outlining a relatively flat place the helicopter can land on.

Photo courtesy of Malcolm. So this is one of the “narrow” caves. There’s a story there. Malcolm and I were sort of bringing up the rear of the group, again mostly because I was too busy taking pictures to keep up. And Malcolm, I think, was making sure I actually made it up alive. He’s a really, really nice polite, gracious man (although Imogen might take issue with that comment at “puddings” time…more on that later). Always felt I had someone looking out for me – biking, hiking, whatever we were up to on the trip.

Anyway – we were at the end of the line and we came to the second or third cave we were going to try going through. Gerard would always scope out the cave we’d be entering, make sure it worked and then tell everyone they had the option of going around and he’d hack out some steps to climb around the outside. So – there was this German couple towards the front of the line. They started into the ice cave, and then came back out. The woman passes by me on her way to take the detour, and says, “It’s very, very narrow,” with that tone of voice that implies I shouldn’t even try. I was very insulted. You all know I know I’m overweight, but few people actually just come up and tell you you’re too fat to do something. Of course, I was then determined to get through. Malcolm heard her and asked if I wanted to start to snowball fight…offered to throw out the first pitch. Actually, I’m sure she was just trying to be helpful.

Anyway – I went through all but one of the caves. Did one on my stomach- kind of like a seal sliding around on a slippery rock. There was a small canyon you had to get over, and the stomach seemed to be the way to go. Malcolm got a picture of that too…so maybe he’s not the gentleman I just described . It was all very, very FUN! Like playing in the snow when you were a kid. I was very happy to have my rainpants though, because I went through none of them on my feet and would have been soaked through without those pants. At one point, I had to go from sitting to getting a foothold to get out of a cave. The opening was actually into a small crevasse between two caves. Each time I’d get my foot in on one side, go to put the second one in, and would just slide back into the first cave on my butt. After a few tries I just started laughing so hard there was no hope. That’s when Gerard came and gave me hand. And no, Joe, I didn’t do it on purpose…really, I didn’t.

We stomped up the glacier, ultimately coming to various ice caves. When you would look into them there were the most incredible blues. I’d say maybe not as good as all the blues you got in the water in Tahiti, especially around Bora Bora, but then again – these were different blues than those. Let’s not have a fight – I’ll just say for now that the southern hemisphere, so far, does blue better than the northern. I’m willing to have folks point me to places in our hemisphere they think compete with either Tahiti or the Glacier, but I’m not sure I’ll get many ideas.

Gerard told us the reason you get the blues here is because the blue lightwave is the only one that doesn’t get completely sucked up by the ice…because they are shorter, or something to that effect. I told you I wouldn’t remember all the glacier facts – those of you who are more scientific than I can post a better, more detailed explanation in the comments.

After creeping into a crevasse, and sticking our heads in this one cave, we had all come out to listen to Gerard give us some more glacier explanations and trivia. While standing just outside the cave, we suddenly heard a crack, something big fall, and then the cracking noise reverberated under our feet and continued down the mountain. Gerard told us earlier that we had no worries about anything giving way today, but Malcolm and I were looking at each other with mild trepidation as the noise echoed down the hill.

Mentioned Gerard, our guide. Really nice young man who told us all sorts of glacier facts – few of which I’ll remember accurately. He was relatively new at this – only six weeks – and I was glad I didn’t find that out until well into the trip or you might feel worried. He made sure our crampons were on properly (the straps had to be laced around your ankles sort of like point show ribbons, so I was right at home) and had the job of hacking steps into the ice for us so we wouldn’t kill ourselves as we climbed up and down the rolling hills of ice. He taught us how to walk like cowboy penguins (think John Wayne in a tux?) and stomp into the ice so we’d keep our footing. Most of all, he was really cute and the girls all wanted to take him home with them. Wonder if he’d be duty free…

Seriously, he had gone to school to do this kind of thing, as had Jenny. Different courses, but similar ends – guiding unsuspecting tourists through some of the beauty, but also dangers, of this great scenery and returning us all home thinking it was safe and easy. Gerard only had to help me out of one crevasse…so I think I did OK.

This photo shows half of the group (4 choppers full of people) walking ahead of us. It gives you some sense of the scale of this thing. You really can’t imagine it until you get on it. I kept feeling happy that the weather had cleared for us…while there were lots of clouds on the mountains, it was mostly a clear shot up and down the glacier itself and the sky above kept getting bluer and bluer the few hours we were up there. Once we started walking, it got warm pretty quickly and the first layer of clothing came off…I had on the jacket, fleece and another turtleneck tank underlayer. Had two pairs of pants…lightweight black ones underneath the rain pants. Elegantly tucked into the tops of wool socks so they wouldn’t get grabbed by the crampons.

We were up there with the Fox Glacier Guides. There were about 20 people at a time, split into two groups. Our guide was Gerard (more on him later). These guys were great … our tour was the Flying Fox – Fox Glacier Heli Hike. Cheaper than a helicopter tour in Hawaii, BTW…and not just the exchange rate makes the difference. Of course, you’re on the glacier more than in the chopper, which is probably the difference. Anyway – can highly recommend the experience here…not to be missed if you come to NZ.

It was awesome getting up there. The glacier changes texture depending on how high up you are – color too. We went up to the top then came down along the mountain, with a quick hover and sharp turn over the gushing Victoria Falls that was dumping tons of water down the mountain. Then we came in for our landing…the heli pad on the glacier is basically some stones with an outline. When you got out, you had to head over to the “grey box” which hold the crampons for our boots. There was also a bag of walking sticks, but beside that and the people who were already there, there isn’t much but ice (packed snow actually) around for quite some ways. When the chopper lands and takes off, you have to crouch down, so you don’t slide away, and cover your face to avoid the flying ice chunks that get spit around when those blades are flying fast and furious.

The scale of the glacier is quite impressive. It was cold when we got up there and had to wait for another chopper to get its tour and land. I was glad for my newly acquired layers – and rainpants. Crouching down like that really hurts my bad knees, and with the rainpants, I could sit. Having a cold butt was better than sore knees.