Fox Glacier

mysterious machinery in a swamp

 

grey beach, grey sea, grey sky

 

breakfast view of the Fox glacier

 

cloud lifting off the Alps

 

walking to the Fox glacier

 

Fox glacier - I am wearing longs to try and defeat the sandflies but there were none up there!

 

Malcolm and glacier

 

guided parties like ants on the glacier

 

 

One of those dots on the river bed ...

 

...was this!

 

Another classic South Island freedom camping spot

 

We drove up from Haast on a grey day and freedom camped  on Gillespies Beach road just out of Fox Glacier.  We went to the beach there and did a couple of walks to look at the remains of old gold dredges.  They looked like some sort of steam-punk space ship crash landed in a swamp.  We were camped by a river with views of the glacier and wondering what was going to happen when the severe weather with heavy rain hit during the night.  We were hoping we wouldn't have to do a midnight flit.

Luckily there was only a little rain in the night and we ate breakfast watching the clouds lifting from above the Fox glacier and other mountain peaks - Mt Cook?  We weren't sure.  Anyway we went to the glacier and had a look.  The glacier view car park road was closed but the access road now has a big car park and new track.  There's a lot of work going on with heavy machinery moving rocks out of the river to reinforce the banks of the track.  It was really hot walking up there - more than an hour return so we went to Lake Matheson cafe for a cold drink.  We were going to walk around the lake which is famous for reflections of the mountains but the clouds we thought were clearing actually thickened, so we missed out with that.  Back to the bus - it was 37 degrees inside, not the normal west coast weather!  That is coming tomorrow I think!