Glaciers

As planned we booked a helicopter glacier flight, having decided that my knees really couldn't cope with a three hour hike on a glacier. We arrived at the booking office in time for a 0900 flight, only to be told that weather conditions meant that the tour we had booked, which included a circuit round Mount Cook, could not go ahead because of the weather. Instead we were offered a thirty minute flight round two glaciers, Fox and Franz Joseph, with a landing at the top of Fox Glacier. As it turned out this was ideal. The take off was much smoother than I expected and we quickly climbed and followed a wooded valley up to the glaciers. At times we seemed to be skimming the treetops. Just as the pilot said we had reached Franz Joseph the clouds cleared and we were in bright sunshine, the views were magical, or awesome as they would say here (NB awesome is a much devalued word and seems to have become a synonym for thank you in some circles, especially short slim NZ female servers!). The pilot was very skilled at giving everyone a good view by zig-zagging along the glacier. At the top of Fox Glacier he landed on a flat snow field and visibility conditions were almost ideal. The temperature was much the same as in the valley, and there was no wind.

The views on the way down were, if anything, better as I was invited to sit next to the pilot. At times a little hair raising, particularly as he banked, it was an experience to be remembered.

As the flight was early morning we decided to walk to the edge of the glacier. This involves a walk through a glaciated valley which is still in the process of formation – again the geologists and geographers amongst you would be in ecstasy. The sheer size of some of the boulders and debris is astonishing. Needless to say it's not possible to get too close to the leading edge of the glacier as bits keep falling off, so we had to content ourselves with being about 100m away from it. Pictures do not give a true idea of scale.

In the afternoon we took a gentler stroll to Lake Matheson which is famous as a lake which has tremendous reflections of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. It was cloudy and a bit windy so the lake surface was rippled, so no reflections. Still, a pleasant walk.

Today we have driven from Fox Glacier up the West Coast to Punakaiki where there are pancake rocks and blowholes. As we haven't been to see them yet I don't know how impressive they are, but the scenery has been. Part of the journey was through gold mining country and we stopped at Ross where there are some restored buildings. Sue took up Can Can dancing!

Tomorrow we drop off the car and take the train across the Alps to Christchurch. We leave NZ on 14^th Feb, I may able to do one more post before we leave.