Franz Josef Glacier

One of the key things that we wanted to see in New Zealand was the glacial valleys on the West Coast of the South Island. There are 2 main glaciers in the area, the first being Fox Glacier and the second, the Franz Josef Glacier.

At 13kms, Fox Glacier is the longest of the New Zealand West Coast glaciers and at its head, soaring peaks of over 3,000m (10,000ft) dominate the landscape. These include Aoraki (Mt Cook) and Mt Tasman. This huge moving river of ice falls 2,600 metres, (8,000ft) on its journey from the base of the Southern Alps to the West Coast. New Zealand’s West Coast glaciers are unique and are probably the most accessible glaciers in the world, as they terminate amongst temperate rainforest just 250m above sea level.

The unique combination of climate and shape means that the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers move approximately ten times faster than other valley glaciers around the world. At Fox Glacier this is due to the funnel-like shape of the glacial valley and the huge nevé, the snow accumulation area, at the top of the glacier. Fox Glacier’s nevé is 36 square kms, bigger than the whole of Christchurch!

Unfortunately this particular day that we were supposed to go to see the glaciers was our first day of torrential rain! We therefore had to try and rush about to get accomodation and had to bypass Fox Glacier as there was no beds to be had. We arrived in Franz Josef to find that it was the same story and we had to splash out for a motel room that wasn't even as good a standard as most NZ hostels and triple the price! We got a slight bit of fortune though as the guy behind the desk was Scottish and I happened to be wearing my Rangers top and he gave us a 10% discount on the room which we went and spent on a chippy since there was no cooking facilities in the motel.

The rain poured all through the night and we decided that we wouldn't bother driving back to see Fox Glacier and would only go to Franz Josef.

The Franz Josef Glacier is 12 km long and was named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria by the German explorer, Julius von Haast in 1865.

The Māori name for the glacier is Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere ('The tears of Hinehukatere'), arising from a local legend: Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to climb with her. Wawe was a less experienced climber than Hinehukatere but loved to accompany her until an avalanche swept Wawe from the peaks to his death. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier.

We were initially going to do a guided tour that took you onto the glacier but after spending so much money in Queenstown and the crap weather we decided against it. From speaking to other people who had went on the glaciers they had also said that it wasn't really worth the money. Instead we took a walk through the valley and could walk right up close to the glacier. We were considering maybe jumping over the safety fence but there was people connected to the tour guides at the other side watching to make sure no-one could get on without a guide.