Friday, February 27, 2009

Climbing Fox Glacier - West Coast

Terminal Face of the Fox Glacier
Then the Rain Started...
At the terminal face
Waterfalls around the area
River heading away from the glacier, more on this later
Climbing up the mountain beside the glacier on the guides "Secret Track"
Almost to where we can safely climb on the glacier
Jim and Jenn about to climb on the Glacier, soaked in some of the 8 inches that fell while we were here
Making our way up
Walking on the glacier






Each band you see on the glacier represents snowfalls that have occurred up in the mountains thousands of years ago. Fox glacier is getting larger every year, which makes it even more specail
Looking out through the valley
Looking up to the mountains. The Glacier is 13 km's long and the equivalent of a 50 storey apartment building in height, it wasn't an easy climb




Making our way back down








This photo and shows another group heading up the glacier, it gives you a good perspective on the immensity of Fox Glacier

You can see another group heading up the glacier in this photo
Heading back to the Car Park, little did we know....
One last look back to the glacier
...8 inches of rain + small creek + Mountain Valley = River Crossing
Jim, Jenn and Alayna safely make it across with the help of the guides

Our Final Adventure in New Zealand - The TranzAlpine Train

Traveling through the Southern Alps on the TranzAlpine Scenic train has been rated one of the top ten trains in the world! The scenery here is unbelievable. The train runs Greymouth on the west coast traveling through the alps and then across the Canterbury Plains to Christchurch.
















Cows in the tall grass
Our train was very long on this bend in the open air cart we could see it going over a viaduct and into a tunnel