Ice Age

Our Trip to the Glacier region on the west coast of the South island, the blog wont recognise the Fox Glacier we visited, so its mapped to the Franz Josef Glacier, only 30 mins away....

The Day before we got frosty with the Ice Glacier, we visited a small place called Hasst, a the town was a right dive, I biked into to town with Paddy and Aniss, cycling over 50 miles to get there....before that we visited the blue pools, an idyllic spot off the beaten track and had a stone skimming contest....

A bridge too far

En route to the Glacier

The we left the town as quick as possible and went to the beach, the weirdest beach ever, so strewn with an unbelievable amount drift wood it looked like some sort of mahogany apocalypse, enough tree trunks and logs to build 20 houses...Paddys bright idea was to take it all back to Ireland and sell it...

Rolled on into the town of Fox, to visit the Glacier, we walked 2 hours through some of the temperate rain forest to get to a spot where the Glacier is assessable, its one of only 2 places on earth where there is a Glacier accessible to the public like this, and the only place it is surrounded by rain forest !

The Fox Glacier

Ice cold !

Stuck our Crampons on and then jumped onto the ice...walked halfway up...didn't get the chance to see the Ice Caves, as they are too far, you need the helicopter ride for that...maybe next time...

The Boys... on the rocks !

Flying Kiwi on ice

Had a great time ice climbing/hiking, and got some great photos...

the dirt you can see on the ice, is Stone and rock that is ground into a fine dust by the ice as it moves slowly but unstoppably through the valley...

Top of the Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand