A glacier called fox

The weather had cooled and the sky was a tad cloudy as we left Queenstown before breakfast and headed for Fox Glacier and points beyond.

Today's bus was a 12 seater and it was a pretty good dozen also. Apart from us there were 2 cops from Christchurch, 2 french backpackers, an elderly Queenstown lady visiting friends at Fox, a young american missionary, an irish backpacker, a mother and son heading for a craft market.

We had a lot of fun on the 6 hour drive - the weather grew steadily worse the further we got from Queenstown. We stopped for lunch at a salmon farm (salmon, salmon, and more salmon) - where we bonded even more as the rain beat heavily on the roof of the cafe.

By the time we were dropped off at our motel at Fox Glacier the rain had obviously set in for the day. The clouds were low and dark and the mountains were barely visible through the mist.

Our motel totally rocked. I can highly recommend it. It's a 2 minute walk from the main drag (1 minute from the pub).

We got a local guy (Murray) to drive us out to the glacier. He picked us up at the motel and then waited in the carpark while we dragged our sodden selves to the base of the glacier. (He also supplied us with yellow plastic ponchos to try and keep us a tad drier than our waterproof jackets were doing).

There were quite a few tourists, apart from ourselves, trudging grimly towards the glacier. No one wanted to miss the opportunity so yellow plastic ponchos and purloined Bunnings umbrellas seemed the order of the day.

Heads down we trudged past the sign warning us not to stop for the next 200 metres (or someone might hit us on the head with a rock - avalanche warning perhaps - can heavy rain cause avalanches? - yep); exchanging wry, waterlogged grins with the hardy souls making their way back to the car park.

We exhanged bows with the Japanese gentlemen (in suits and ties -see note re: Bunnings umbrellas), wondered at the 3 young guys in boardies, t shirts, and thongs - they were wet, couldn't get any wetter I guess - and finally reached the glacier.

Everything was grey - sky, glacier, horizon, hills, but no matter we were there. I'm sure it would be even more spectacular without rain but it lost none of it's scenicicity in the rain (we just didn't stand there as long as might otherwise have been the case).

Murray had shown us photos he'd taken over the past 30 years which clearly showed how much the glacier had moved during that time - it was truly awesome to gaze upon and we would have really liked to have helicoptered over it, but the weather had grounded all glacier flights - ah well, it was still an inspiring sight.

It was a couple of soaking wet tappers who made their way back to the motel and curled up in front of the heater with books and hot chocolates (instant I'm afraid...Jarrah chocolatte fudge) as darkness came a few hours early due to that danged rain.