Day 13 :Annelise of the Antarctic

Set alarms early, although were awake early having had a sound night's sleep. Carla and Michael served up a feast of fruit, smoked salmon bagel, granola and freshly baked muffins. Our hosts waved us off at 830 as we set off for Fox Glacier.

The first stage of the journey took us past the far reaches of Lakes Wanaka and Hwaea. The scenery was just incredible. After the lakes the road followed wide rivers flood plains and mountain streams to the Haarst pass. The steep valleys were blanketed by lush green rainforest and every so often a waterfall would cascade from the trees high up the valley wall.

Descended to Haarst and the west coast. Every other vehicle on Highway 6 was a rented camper van and hence it appearedthat Highway 6 was a well trodden tourist route.

Needing the loo, I saw one of the magic signs at Paringa, 20 minute up the coast from Haarst and pulled into a small campsite in a picturesque location on the shores of Lake Paringa; all the surrounding mountains reflected perfectly on the surface. I went through the motions of showing the toilet snob the non-flushing-bio-degrading-eco-latrine. Without a word she turned and headed back to the car. I guessed that was a no.

Arrived in Fox Glacier and checked into the lodge. Ambled across the road to pick up our glacier tour. As we hung around the shop waiting to be called with our group, Annelise commented that the place smelled of "Backpackers". I reckon her bionic nose had detected the basket of socks (used multiple times by all the previous punters) from which we were to pick a pair to wear…..

The trip was something Annelise had wanted to do because she had never been on a glacier or even above the snow line on a mountain but was not keen due to the mountaineering required to reach the surface of the glacier.So when she found out on her birthday that Annabel and Martin had bought this as a present for her, she thought it must be some kind of joke.

The tour started in the valley, which was covered in ice in the 1920s. 15 minutes walk over the moraine, we reached the current foot of the glacier: a 30m wall of rugged grubby ice. Lots of useful gems from guide later, we headed up a track on the side of the valley, up through the rainforest ascending 800+s 'secret' steps so we could access the surface of the glacier higher up. In an unprecedented act of bravery for someone scared of heights, Annelise scaled some steep narrow paths with vertical drops and little to grasp for support. At the side of the glacier we attached our crampons, picked up an alpenstock (Annelise thought this was a muesli bar) and ascended glacial steps up on to the surface of the glacier. The guide paused every couple of hundred meters to tell us some useful facts as well as carving out a few more steps with his pickaxe. At one stage he unearthed a twisted piece of aluminium that had originated from a plane which crashed on the glacier and fell down a crevasse 40 years ago. Annelise was fascinated by the ice, asked loads of questions and peered into all the crevasses and holes…..

Once we got back, we felt we had earned a couple of PN's and an early dinner after the expedition.