Home » New Zealand » Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, The glaciers, Milford Sound, Mount Cook, Abel Tasman National Park, Wellington, Tongariro National Park, Bay of Islands, Auckland

South Pacific - part II

Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, The glaciers, Milford Sound, Mount Cook, Abel Tasman National Park, Wellington, Tongariro National Park, Bay of Islands, Auckland

Hector Yague
2005-10-09 15:46:17

Displayed times (last time: )

/>

The glaciers

The west coast is home to two impressive glaciers: the Franz Joseph Glacier and the Fox Glacier. For those of you guys who've never been in a glacier, it is basically an ice river sliding all the way from the mountain crest down to the valley, covering and eroding whatever's on its way. Here in New Zealand I learnt heaps about glaciers and how they operate, and how they expand and shrink over the centuries. There are hundreds of glaciers all around the world wherever there's a mountain range, but what makes these ones here in New Zealand unique is the fact that New Zealand is at the equivalent latitude in the south hemisphere as the Mediterranean Sea is in the north hemisphere and, on top of that, these glaciers are at only 250 meters over sea level. Ok, I will dumb that down so we're both in the same page: can you imagine a huge ass perpetual ice river storming down a hill in, say, Saint Tropez, Monaco or Rome? exactly. That clues us in of the extreme weather conditions here in NZ's south island. Moreover, this is the only spot on Earth where a rainforest -yup, those wet tropical forests covered with moss, fern and stuff- can be found within 100 meters of a glacier. Amazing contrast!

We joined a guided group and climbed a lil'bit up the glacier. Felix and I would have loved to do the heli-hiking tour, which takes you by helicopter to the top of the glacier and drops you there where the ice caves are at their best, but we cheap bastards couldn't afford the US$200 bill for a 30 mins flight. Sucks to be poor! One day, when I become rich, I will buy my own helicopter for fuck's sake. Well, actually, fuck the helicopter, I will buy my own glacier altogether!

Milford Sound -through Wanaka and Queenstown-

After a couple of days exploring the west coast glaciers, we moved on ...