Joseph Franz Glacier

Did Cathi Leave one or Take one? On Hwy 89 between Wanaka and Queenstown.

February 27, 2015: The glaciers in New Zealand are unique to the world. They are the closest to sea level and tropical forests occupy the mountains below the glaciers. The Fox and theFranz Josef glaciers have receded significantly in the last few years. However it may not be due to global warming… Franz Josef also retreated in the late 60’s early 70’s and ultimately restored itself to the previous boundary. But compared to the recoded history of where the glacier’s boundaries were in the 1700’s –It is a fraction of that size. The closest one can get to the FJ glacier on foot is 500 meters. The closest we could get to Fox Glacier by hiking unguided was 200 meters. Today, the only way to actually stand on the glaciers themselves is to reach them by helicopter.  We experienced an amazing day taking the heli to the FJ glacier and hiking up to a raging waterfall thundering out of the ice. We squeezed through narrow ice passages, crawled through ice tunnels, ascended on ice steps carved with ax by our guide, and at some points the skinny ice path seemed so precarious I thought I could slip into a cavern and disappear. As we were managing the steep return to the spot on the glacier deemed a heli-pad, we heard the crashing sound of ice breaking and witnessed a landslide of ice and rocks about 100 meters away. What else could you want from an afternoon on the glacier

How many Fish do you see?

Bobby says that there are fish in this Picture. Can you spot them?