Day 10: Ice Caves Cometh

Thursday, September 11th~

Despite the clouds of the previous afternoon, this morning was crystal clear. Perfect day for a heli-hike! Vicki, Tracey, Laura B., Debra and I were the only ones who managed to justify spending $315 on such a venture. We were right. The helicopter (my first time riding in one- very cool) dropped us off about 3 kilometers from the terminal face of Fox Glacier, maybe half way up, with our guide, Hillary (Middlebury, class of ’05- yay Vermont!). She was great and told us so much about Fox Glacier and took us exploring through some stellar ice caves.

Fun Facts about Fox Glacier:

*It is one of the only glaciers in the world that is getting bigger. It grows about 1.5 meters every day. (The other one that is growing is the nearby Franz Joseph Glacier.)

*It is one of the only glaciers that is surrounded by temperate rain forest. This is because it is at an unusually low altitude. If I remember correctly, it is only 800 meters above sea level at its highest point.

The area we were exploring (with the help of crampons and pointy sticks; apparently ice is slippery), changes really frequently, actually, it changes almost constantly. As Hillary told us, the glacier is like a river, flowing down from the nevé to the terminal face, and where we were hiking was like a really big bend in the river. As the ice flows around the bend, it gets forced back on itself forming caves and other cool formations. We got up there around 8:20, so the sun hadn’t hit the ice yet. Then, Hillary took us through a particularly long and complex cave and when we emerged, it was into a totally different world, dazzling bright in the sunlight. Amazing! It got pretty warm pretty fast, which helped us dry off as that big cave had involved a lot of wet butt-wiggling action in order to get through the narrower fissures. It has always been one of my favorite things to climb around on rocks; climbing around on glaciers is now up there, too! I took a whole lot of pictures, so I hope they turn out alright. I can’t imagine they truly capture the magic of the setting, though. It was an excellent experience.

After the helicopter had taken us back to the village of Fox Glacier, we grabbed a bite at the Cook Saddle for lunch (I had a phenomenal breakfast quesadilla). By the time we were done, a replacement van had arrived. I found it quite comfortable, comfy enough to take a nap in. On the road, we stopped in Hokatika, a seaside town that is kind of a center for jade drafting. Jade is HUGE in New Zealand. In the 45 minutes we were in Hokatika, I wandered around a Jade factory and shop, waded in the Tasman Sea, and met someone who actually got the joke on my censorship button. I was very productive. We went from there to Flock Hill Lodge, a working sheep station. We had two cabins, but most of us crammed into one, planning on partying it up later. We went to dinner and hung out drinking wine for a while, as more and more people trickled off to bed. So much for partying it up. In bed by 11:30ish.