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More weather woes made us worry a little with whether or not a trip to Fox Glacier would be worth it. Most of the high peaks from Punakaiki down to Fox were completely covered in cloud. We had heard that the best day of the week was meant to be the Wednesday so we decided to stop and book a place on the half day hike up the glacier. We didn't regret it! On the morning of the hike there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
The first part of the walk was up through the side of the surrounding valley through thick, green, waterfall-full rainforest. The fact that the glacier ends in rainforest is pretty unique. Only Franz Joseph and another glacier in Patagonia have their snout less than 300m above sea level. After about 90 minutes in the forest and a chain walk across a steep cliff face, we decended onto the glacier surface. It was pretty cool (pun intended), very rough but with crampons it was really easy to walk on. We all posed for the cheesy photographs and had a good look at Mount Tasman (about 3000m) in the distance. After about an hour on the ice we had to walk back along the way we came to get back to the end of the glacier. I would bore you with lots of glacier-related facts, but I'll spare you until I get back! Muhahah. Ok then, maybe just one... the glacier is about 13 km long and advancing by about 5m per day in the upper reaches, but by only 1m a day at its end.
-B
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