Fox Glacier (not the mint)

May 22
A bit of an early start, had an amazing view of Mountain top when we awoke.

We headed into Fox Township and to the Alpine Guides to book our tour for the day - "The Nimble Fox".
Wearing thermal long-johns, trousers, vest, t-shirt, long sleeve sweatshirt, fleece jumper, 2 pairs of socks, hat and mittens - I was ready for our adventure.
We walked through rainforest and up around 150 steps, slowly peeling off al the layers as we got to boiling point.
It was time to put on the cramp-ons and back on the layers - we were ready for the ice.
We spent a total of 4 hours on the ice, walking on the Glacier, with our guide cutting fresh steps for us to climb up with his pick axe. We went through a couple of caves and got a bit wet.

Beneath the Ice

The Great Explorer

The Fox Glacier is up to 350m in depth and terminates 250m above sea level, making it so accessable to us. They get 35-45m of snowfall each year, and the Glacier is still growing and advancing about 20cm per day (meant to be 1m but 80% melts).
We walked back through the rainforest and to the bottom where the Glacier ends - it looked huge!
After getting back and warming up again with a hot drink we set off for another long drive. We drove for around 250 km along windy roads before finding a resting point, had dinner and exhausted from the day enjoyed a drink!

Fox Glacier (not the mint)

Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand