Fox Glacier, New Zealand.

From Queenstown we headed towards the famous glaciers on the west cost. We stopped again many times for photos. One stop became a bit of a nightmare... We got stuck in the gravel! Who knows you can get stuck in gravel?! First it was mud, then ice, now gravel. I never really understood why people would drive 4x4 vehicles, particularly in cities, since they have a tendency to kill more children, but out in the country their use becomes blatantly obvious. Marty (our van) was quite a cosy home for us, but he was absolutely useless on the NZ roads!

Stuck in the gravel. We thought laying sticks infront of the tyres might have helped, but it looks more like we're trying to start a fire!

In the end we had to flag down some passers by to help us out. The first car had a couple inside. When we saw the guy he was a pretty burly looking bloke, and we thought "Yeah! He'll know how to get us out." Nope, and when we found out his name... Fabian, I thought with a name like that he's destined to be a bit of a girl when it comes to that sort of thing! So we had to flag down another passer by. Paul was the next chap. As he pulled up he had a dog in the back, a huge firearm in the passenger seat and a fag hanging out of his left hand. Hmmm... glad it was day time and we had Fabian there (for whatever use he would be!). Paul stepped out of his jeep with his wellies on - he looked the part. He was going to get us out! He calmly walked over to the van and took a look under the vehicle. He grabbed Fabian's tow rope (yes he even had a tow rope...), showed us where to hook it up, then pulled us out! Yay! Free of the gravel! Simple when you know how.

Fabian, Jo and Paul

This was the view we stopped for.

On to the glaciers...

The two main glaciers are the Fox Glacier and the Frans Josef Glacier. The Frans Josef is more famous, from what we understand as only better marketing which also made it more expensive to going hiking on. We chose to go hiking therefore on the Fox Glacier. It was a half day hike with one hour on the ice.

To get to the glacier we had to walk through the rainforest. It was about an hour walk up and down some steep hills, but it was worth it.

View down the valley.

In the rainforest.

Getting closer to the glacier.

Before we got onto the glacier we had to strap on our crampons! This was the first time I had used these before. They're massive spikes you attach to the bottom of your boots to stop you sliding all over the ice. They're quite effective.

Walking on the ice!

Me!

Looking down the valley while still on the glacier. To the right you can see a 'mulan', a tunnel down through the ice that the rain and melting ice will flow through.

The Fox and Frans Josef glaciers are two only a few glaciers in the world that are advancing. Most are retreating due to global warming. Apparently New Zealand experiences the opposite due to the El Niño and La Niña effect. The Fox is advancing at a rate of about 20cm per day. Not bad!