Fox Glacier

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Day 1

We decided to go to Lake Matheson first to get some highly recommended lake reflection shots before the wind got up. We did very well as these shots below show!

Mountains from Lake Matheson

On the way back to the car, the clouds cleared from over Mt Cook, so I was able to get a mostly clear shot of it with my zoom.

Photo of Mt Cook

Afterwards we went to the Fox glacier itself and it was truly a stunning sight. The walk was not too far, and it took you so close to the terminal face of the glacier itself. The whole area had an impressive rugged beauty feel about it all. I really enjoyed this place and think it might have the edge over the Franz Josef glacier overall.

Fox glacier

Close up of Fox Glacier

Interesting blue ice

Us in front of Fox Glacier

Here near the car park there is an incredible landslide that happened thousands of years ago but the sheer size and scale of it just takes your breath away!

Impressive landslide

That night the weather reports were forecasting heavy rain for Friday morning. After some consideration we decided to have a rest day on Friday and upgrade our accommodation from a tent to a cabin so Fem could actually get some sleep (Me? I take my hearing aids out and will be able to sleep through a heavy thunder storm) and because we had planned on doing the Copland track (a 2 day hike).

Day 2

Our rest day worked well, we had the 24 hour net access and got a lot of updates and galleries created, and were in a comfy and roomy cabin but it did not rain at all during the day! We felt a little cheated!

Day 3

On this day the heavens really opened up and it rained heavily all day long. We were nice and warm and dry inside our cabin. The main kitchen area had a lot of tents and sleeping bags from other campers that were not able to withstand the rain. The number of backpackers with really sour faces all day long gave an idea of the number of plans ruined by the rain. Unfortunately with this much rain the Copland track was most likely closed (several stream crossings would have been too dangerous) so we had to make plans for travelling to Wanaka. Also there was the issue with my boots.

I was also able to find out for certain that the Meindl boots that had given me so much grief on the Abel Tasman and the Nelson lake hikes were just too small for me. After several calls to shops selling the boots they all informed me that those boots generally do not give and if I am getting sore feet then the boots are just the wrong size. I realised that I would need to buy another pair of boots before I could attempt another long hike. After cursing the shop that originally sold me the shoes. (Silk Road, Fortitude Valley, QLD… never go there), I knew I would have to find another pair in either Wanaka or Queenstown. So off we set to Wanaka.

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