Feb 2, 2013 - Fox Glacier

What a lovely location. Up early for breakfast with our hosts and guests. Having had a chat with Lee we had decided to drive to Gillespies Beach and walk the gold rush walk and lagoon. The beach was empty and covered with shells and driftwood. Good fun foraging. We the drove to Lake Matheson to walk the circuit around the lake. An area of the lake was reputed to be so calm that it reflected the mountains in its water. Not that day it didnt. The walk was challenging but enjoyable. After that we visited Fox glacier and climbed as close to the...

Feb 1, 2013 - Misty Peaks

It was still dark when we had to get up this morning! We had to catch the TranzAlpine train to Greymouth. After a somewhat disappointing breakfast left curling from the night before by our host we caught a taxi to the station and checked our luggage onto the luggage compartment and took our seats on the train. The train had huge windows and a viewing carriage where you could take photographs from. Unfortunately we were advised that Arthur's Pass, a tunnel en route to Greymouth was experiencing communication difficulties and that we might...

Jun 30, 2012 - Fox Glacier

Our drive to Fox Glacier didn’t begin until 11. It was lovely to have a very relaxed morning. As we drove over the range, David at the helm, we realized how precarious it can be to drive over roads that are icy. The road between Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers even at 11am, had traces of frost splattered over the road. It was a slow winding drive, however as the two places are 22km away from each other, we were there in 40 minutes. We checked into our new accommodation, marveled at our amazing view, had an early lunch and then walked down...

May 6, 2012 - Ice Ages: Fox Glacier

We had had our fingers crossed for about a week, hoping for good weather so we could hike Fox Glacier and when the day finally came, it was a beautiful day! Setting out about 9am and all geared up, we ready to go. The hike started on a steep ridge alongside the glacier, then moved onto the glacier. We spent about four hours tramping around the ice exploring chasms, moulins, icy rivers, walls of ice, the use of crampons and yellow ice. ;) It was a great day. A different world. Makes you feel so small. Difficult to comprehend time in terms of...

Apr 15, 2012 - Fox Glacier, Mint!

Hello all, Wow, is all we can say about our day at the glaciers. Fox Glacier; see the pictures they tell you more than I ever could. Apart from the the amazing cracking sound of the ice at the front (you'll see that in the pics). Apparently a piece the size of a bus falls off every day. We hope and waited but didn't see or hear. Enjoy the pics. Much love C & P xx

Feb 3, 2012 - Fox's glacier, and its mint

After an interrupted breakfast, by the overly keen cleaners, we headed off towards Fox Glacier along the Haast pass. The scenery was breathtaking and ever changing. Some of the time it looked like rain forest or a scene from Jurassic park and you half expected a dinosaur to crash through the forest. We stopped off at Blue Pools with lots of other tourists. We didn't’t know what they were but as you’ll see in the photos it was well worth the 30 min round trip. The water is so crystal clear you can see brown trout, which look like they are...

Dec 6, 2011 - Crystal Blue Sensation - Fox Glacier, Dec. 4-5, 2011

When we tore ourselves away from The Breakers, we headed to Franz Josef Town. Originally, our plans called for a three-hour detour to go to the top of Arthur’s Pass, another pass over the spine of southern NZ. However, Jan told us that we’d already been over what was, in her opinion, the more beautiful pass: Lewis Pass, and that Haast Pass, on the way to Queenstown, was in our future. Moreover, we’d be doing plenty of driving on winding roads on our travels to Dunedin, the Catlins, and to Invercargill. (Note: as I write this, we’re in...

Oct 21, 2011 - Fox Glacier Day 2

Um 5.30 Uhr hiess es heute aufwachen, weil bereits um 7.00 Uhr der Gletscherflug mit dem Helikopter geplant war. Tja, es hat nicht sollen sein, Nebel und Regen haben uns gezwungen den Flug aufzugeben und noch ein paar Stunden in der gemütlichen Lodge auszuharren… :-) Damit es nicht beim rumlümmeln blieb heute, sind wir ein paar Minuten Auto gefahren und ca. 1 Std. lang um den Lake Matheson spaziert. Auf schönen Pfaden wandernd, durften wir immer wieder an den Viewpoints die wunderschöne Aussicht geniessen. Nach einem leckeren Mittagessen...

Oct 20, 2011 - Fox Glacier Day 1

Heute hiess es mal wieder Autofahren. Wir sind von Queenstown nach Fox Glacier gefahren. Insgesamt waren wir mit Pausen über sechs Stunden unterwegs. Dies war natürlich vor allem für Patrick als Fahrer sehr anstrengend. Immerhin hat es sich für ihn fototechnisch gelohnt. Landschaftlich war die Strecke wunderschön und sehr abwechslungsreich. Endlich haben wir auch mal so richtige Wälder gesehen und es kam auch zum ersten Mal seit wir hier sind, ein wenig Lord of the Rings Stimmung auf. Die Landschaften hätten auch im Film genauso vorkommen...

Jul 7, 2011 - NZ Blog Seven - Glacier Country

Friday 1 July - Wanaka to Fox Glacier A bit of a drive today over the Haast Pass and on to Fox Glacier so an early start with a few stops planned on the way. Soon after taking off the area showed how cold it was with a large frost everywhere just outside of Wanaka. Luckily there wasn’t any ice on the roads but we were fairly careful anyway. We soon had our first stop at a lookout overlooking Lake Hawea and at 10:00 it was still very foggy over the lake. A bit further along we stopped at Thunder Creek Falls for a short walk to view the...

May 24, 2011 - Fox Glacier - but no mint!

Today we hiked to Fox Glacier - how cool is that! (Excuse the pun). We were disappointed that there were no mints though- ha ha. Seriously, it was brilliant - literally. It is the first glacier that we have ever seen and we were amazed to see how blue it was. We thought it would be perfectly white. We didn't do the ice hike that many adventurous people do but we were more than happy with our hike though the rugged mountain track to the stunning glacier at the end. We then went on to find somewhere to stay for the night and are staying in...

Apr 28, 2011 - The West Coast - glacier country

On the way to the West Coast we stopped at Haast for lunch and I had the regional specialty Whitebait fritters which was very nice. At Fox Glacier township we checked into the budget Holiday Park which wasn't a great idea because by the next morning we were both frozen. We drove to Lake Matheson which at certain spots around the lake you can be lucky to get amazing reflections of the Southern Alps and Mount Cook. The highlight of our trip was always going to be getting up and close to the glaciers. We booked in for a heli hike up to Fox...