Day 123-124

Day 123 was taken up with travelling from Queenstown to Fox Glacier. We had a few stops on the way, namely; Lake Wanaka, Thunder Creek Falls and Knights Point.

On the 29th we had our Guided Fox Glacier Tour. Our guide was Jono. We had approximately an hour walk to the glacier and then we were on the glacier for around 1 1/2 hours.

It was actually really cool as we got to walk through tight spaces and under ice tunnels. The glacier is currently moving at a rate of 30cm a day and at the bottom you can see where it is moving rocks aside. The brown marks in the ice are due to the ice crushing rocks leaving a residue, which apparantly is good for your skin. It is also one of the only glaciers in the world to be currently growing, despite climate change. The deepest parts of the glacier reach 450m and it is 13km long, which is the longest in Australiasia.

Lorna thought that it looked like snow from the bush although it was ice. By the time we had reached the glacier we were warm enough to only wear a t-shirt and jacket. In order climb the glacier we had to wear crampons to grip the ice.

There is nothing else to do in Fox apart from climb the glacier, they don't even have a cash machine or supermarket. It is the remotest place we have stayed on our travels.