Fox & Franz Josef Glacier April 2 - 4

We left Lake Hawea and headed around the winding mountain roads for Fox Glacier, there was never going to be much to write about for this day as it was just a travelling day before we hiked Franz Josef glacier. We just stayed at Fox as we had free camping there! As it turned out, the holiday park was one of the best we've stayed in with brand new facilities. Come the evening we decided to brave the short but pitch-black walk up the road to a local pub and sat by the fire sampling some of the local beers and wine.

The next day we drove the remaining 25km north to Franz Josef, the town itself being slightly bigger than Fox Glacier and catering for those on a bigger budget meaning that our holiday park options were limited. We ended up staying at a small place with little to no facilities but its one redeeming factor was that it was located across the road from the hot pools that came included in our glacier walk ticket.

After checking in we made our way to the glacier tour company and got fitted up in our ice-hiking gear - waterproofs trousers, jacket, hat, gloves and supersized boots and crampons. I've got big feet but these bad boys were like wearing a couple of yachts on the end of my ankles! After a short drive and not so short walk through the valley that has been carved out by the ice, we eventually reached the glacier itself. Having never seen a glacier before, it's quite a sight - a huge river of ice that originates high up on top of the mountains in the cloud above and tumbles down the valley towards you. The glacier itself can move up to 5 metres down the mountain per day which is more than I moved during some of my less productive uni days! Every morning the tour company send scouts up the glacier to find caves and valleys and carve a path up the ice, they have to do this every day as the landscape of the glacier changes so much. Our guide Jonno, ice-pick in hand, would occasionally stop in front of us to swing the pick at the ice and carve out some steps for the group, to be fair he looked pretty bad-ass with the ice-pick. To get onto the glacier you have to climb up over a huge rock pile at its base which was apparently dumped onto the ice close to the top in a landslide in the 40's and is only now reaching the bottom. The edge of the pile is roped off with huge warning signs plastered with press cuttings of stories featuring tourists killed on the ice which we were told to ignore - easier said than done!

We strapped on the crampons and felt at home on the ice, meandering though huge canyons with walls of blue ice surrounding us. We also got to climb through an ice cave which was really good fun! We made our way back down the ice to the valley below just as the heavens opened and we all appreciated our waterproofs despite the fact that they make you look like a bright blue snowman. We spent the evening relaxing in the hot pools and watching tv in the camper.