We’re getting worse at early starts and our attempt at one
today resulted in a 10:00 departure, oh well. We drove as far as we could to
the base of the Fox Glacier before we had to get out and walk; a walk which is
supposed to be about an hour return trip. The sun was out and there wasn’t a
cloud in the sky and so we ignored the signs to wear warm clothing and good
walking shoes and set off on the walk. We were lucky and didn’t need any of the
aforementioned things and made it to the viewing area within 15 minutes due to
some intense power walking to make up lost time. We could see the base of the
glacier pretty well from here and so took some snaps, took in the view and
moved on.
About half an hour after leaving Fox we arrived in the car
park for Franz and again made for the walk to the viewing area. This was
supposed to be a 1hr 30min return trip and did indeed take longer to walk than
the Fox one. We pushed on to the end of the trail only to be disappointed with
what we saw; the viewing area didn’t allow you to see the full view of the base
of Franz Josef Glacier which was quite a let-down after a long walk in the sun.
We backed-up a bit and took some photos and also noticed some other tourists
crossing the “safe zones” to attempt to get a better view – they didn’t seem
very successful. Overall we were very unimpressed with this walk and annoyed
that we now had to walk another half an hour back to the car park.
We think that a heli-hike on FJ would be great just like the
Fox one was, though you’d probably have more climbing and steep sections to
overcome on FJ. FJ is also a lot busier than Fox; we could see 4 groups already
making their way over the ice but none on Fox, though it is just as an
appealing place. FJ gets a lot more attention than Fox though after our trip
yesterday we find it hard to understand why as they’re both just as appealing
it would seem, just not from the base views!
After FJ Glacier we stopped for lunch in the town which was
a great idea and we left fully fuelled for the journey ahead.
We only made a toilet stop on the way up to Punakaiki where
our camp-site for the night awaited us.
That’s all really.
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