Low clouds hung over the road on our drive from Hokitika to Fox Glacier town where we would be staying for the night. It rained on and off during the drive. We crossed over several rushing rivers; obviously this area has been getting loads and loads of rain. The rain and clouds obscured what should have been an extremely beautiful drive.
The rain continued as we drove into Franz Josef village. After strolling around the small village for a while Tom and I decided to brave the rain and head over to the glacier itself. We parked the car in the nearly-empty car park and made our way to the information sign. Three walks start from this area: Franz Josef Glacier Walk, Glacier View at the end of the Forest Walk and Sentinel Rock Walk. The first walk, the one we wanted to do, had a sign stating "Not recommended today due to flooding". We didn’t let this get in our way. We started down the path and incredible rainforest, waterfalls, steep mountains, and the beautiful blue Franz Josef glacier filled our view. As we continued down the path a barrier closed off the path. We could see several people in the distance so we jumped, or rather crawled under, the barrier and continued on our way. Our next barrier? A stream of water wider than could be jumped. Tom braved the water first by rock-hopping to the other side. I followed suit by leaping over the rocks behind Tom. I managed to make it without soaking my shoes.
From here the trail continued over the river valley across lichen-covered rocks. As we neared the Waiho River I had to stop and listen. The sound coming from the river was the most pleasing, soothing noise. I kept calling it stone soup. You could hear what sounded like ice chunks or rocks banging and grinding against each other as they flowed rapidly down the river. The muted grinding noise had such a soothing sound and I stood there for what felt like ages just listening. I have to mention the milky/chalky colour of the river. The glacial sediment suspended in the water causes this phenomenon. Ice chunks raced over the large boulders sticking out of the water. We watched several ice chunks get stuck on top of a large boulder and stay there until the current eventually pushed it off. At one point we saw one of the trail markers go floating down the river past us.
As we got closer to the glacier the path was blocked by a field of ice chunks. It is obvious that this is where the trail should have been and the flooding of the area caused the ice chunks to settle in one area. It was the most bizarre sight. If we wanted to continue on to the glacier we would have to navigate over a series of rocks and ice chunks. We saw a few people who managed to get beyond this area to make their way up to the glacier, but it seemed a bit too treacherous and we accepted defeat as most people were doing. The trail was quite easy, not strenuous at all and could be done by people of all levels as long as you can do the distance.
The sun peeked out of the clouds a few times and gave us different views of the glacier. Just as we decided to turn back a rainbow formed over the glacier. It put a smile on our faces…next stop: Fox Glacier.
Glacier information:
Forming part of the Westland National Park, Franz Josef glacier extends 12 kilometres in length. The glacier starts in the Southern Alps at around 3000 metres and ends at approximately 200 metres above sea level in a temperate rainforest. As most glaciers do, the glacier exhibits a cyclical pattern of advance and retreat all the time depending on snow at the névé and melting at the terminal face.
The glacier was named after Franz Josef I of Austria in 1865.