Fox Glacier

Made it through the night and still alive, so all is well! Woke up to blue skies and glorious sunshine so the heli-hike was definitely on. After so many full cooked breakfasts, I opted for a bowl of cereal and slice of toast. We headed down to Fox Glacier, checked in and then took the chopper up the glacier to about half way up (we got dropped off at about 6km up; there’s a further 7km beyond that). It was great fun flying up in a helicopter – they did a tour around, banking sharply, so that we could see all around the glacier and take some great photos and video.

Once we were dropped on the ice, we got our crampons on, grabbed an ice stick and headed out in a small group (8 people) with our guide Rodger. As you can see from the photos, we saw some pretty impressive sights on the tour. We only covered around 1-2km of ground but spent about 3 hours exploring on the ice and had a fantastic time. Apparently most glaciers take tens of thousands of years for ice to travel from top to bottom, like a conveyor belt. Fox Glacier is quite unique in that it travels very fast, in geological terms. The ice can move around 5m per day at the top and a snowflake that falls at the top of the glacier, will be at the bottom melting only 60 years later!

Rodger told us a story that he swears is true, that there was a young couple who loved to hike and on their first anniversary the wife bought her husband an expensive cigarette lighter, engraved with his name on it. He was climbing near the top and dropped the lighter down a crevasse, lost forever. 57 years later someone discovered it at the bottom of the glacier and it was returned to him! Apparently they were still married. Nice story, even if it’s not true!

The only way of getting everyone up and down off the glacier was to make 3 trips with the helicopter. On the way up, we were the second group. Somehow Michael and I (along with another lady and her daughter from Australia) managed to get left to the third group on the way back down … except the chopper never turned up! Unfortunately, the weather had turned a bit nasty – it started to rain and the cloud came into the valley, so it wasn’t safe to send the helicopter up for us. Rodger and the other guide left us at the makeshift helipad on the ice, while they took their afternoon groups on their tour. He had previously warned us (although only once we were about 2 hours into the walk) that they did have some supplies on the glacier in case of getting stuck and having to spend the night up here (plastic barrels, sleeping bags, canned food, etc). Now I was wishing I’d had the full cooked breakfast after all … damn!

As luck would have it, the weather cleared just enough to enable the helicopter back up for us … we could hear it faintly in the distance and all cheered – we were saved! You’d think it was a scene from “Alive” or something, but in reality I think we were only stuck on the ice for about half an hour! Even half an hour is enough though, when you’ve got no food, you’re getting cold and wet, all you can see around you is white so you can’t even play a game of “I Spy” (time does go THAT slowly!). I sat up front in the chopper (and took a great little clip of video) and the pilot said that when it rained he tended to get a little damp through the window, so that’s why he didn’t want to come up and get us! Cheeky bugger!

Once down off the mountain, we headed for the nearest warm pub with hot food and cold beer and tucked in! Food never tasted so good. Then it was off to do a couple of hotel inspections and head for our hotel for evening. Despite the little problem with the weather, it was a great adventure and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. Being on the glacier and exploring with a knowledgeable guide (who was explaining everything as we went) was lots of fun. And the helicopter pilots know how to give you a good ride too! Great toys