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We woke up at 7 a.m. and headed straight out. I ate a carrot cake muffin and Craig had a blueberry one while we were on the road. We arrived in the town of Fox Glacier at around 8:30. We checked in for our tour at Alpine Guides and then bought a few items in the shop. We were told that we needed to provide our own lunch, so we bought sandwiches at their Hobnail Cafe. Craig got a chicken and salad sandwich, and I got chicken, brie, and cranberry sauce on a croissant.
We headed off to the boot room to get our gear. It seemed risky to wear their standard issue boots on a long day hike - what if they didn't fit right? But it turned out that our personal hiking boots would sustain their crampons, so we were able to use them. Our guide Cornelia lined up the crampons against the instep of our boots, and told us they were fine. But the setup was really good, and they had boots, mittens, hats, wool socks, backpacks, etc. that people could borrow if they didn't have their own. There were a total of 12 people in our group. Cornelia drove us on a short ride by bus to the glacial terminal moraine. We hiked for about an hour through the rainforest to access the glacier. Some sections of the tramp were bordered by a 150-meter drop, so we were instructed to use the chains as hand-holds. It was a steep hike but not too difficult. So far so good in terms of our fitness to do the hike. But hey, I could still fall into 6 feet of glacial water, right? When we accessed the moraine, we put on our crampons. We needed to wrap the green plastic straps in a figure 8 around our ankles and then buckle them, so that the metal plate would be directly under the arch of your foot. I have flat feet anyway, and I suspected that this might prove to be uncomfortable as the day wore on. To walk in crampons (this was our first time), you need to stamp your feet into the ground so that the spikes under your arch grasp the snow and ice. When I walk regularly, my heel and toes are engaged a lot, but never my arch. But they did provide good traction, so we had to consciously step on our arches. Soon the fear that I was not fit enough to do this hike (and that I may end up in 6 feet of water or down a crevasse) disappeared entirely, and was replaced by a sort of annoyed boredom. Cornelia carried an ice axe, and used it liberally to cut stairs in the ice even in places where the traction seemed fine. This made for a slow pace (we need to hike single file) and a feeling that we were going to be tackling nothing more challenging than a Boston sidewalk in January. At one point Craig and I stepped to the side of the track to get photos and not be on anyone's way. Now, we didn't step off the track. We merely stepped to the side. We were still on the track. Cornelia quickly chastised us and yelled out that we need to stay on the track to take photos. It seemed a bit of an overreaction, much like when I was in college and was motioning toward a piece of art and a guy came running over accusing me of touching it. This would be a long day. But whatever. Craig and I started making some jokes to one another. But soon things got much better. Cornelia seemed to calm down a bit. She asked if we wanted to stay at the more populated area of the glacier (where all the half day guided hikes currently were) or press on ahead to a more secluded place. Luckily the group decided to press on. In some areas, the glacier water was limpid blue. In others it was marbled black and white. Soon the sunny blue sky gave way to clouds and it got a wee bit colder. The sensation of hiking on the glacier ranged from walking on a Slush Puppie to slogging through an ice machine. Cornelia cut steps as she went and we snaked along behind her. We slithered through some crevasses together. After a while my legs started to get tired. Marching along the ice and stamping my crampons down started to tire my knees, and my arches didn't feel terrific with a big metal plate being driven into them. I was starting to slow down and I was starting to lose my concentration, and I lost my footing a couple of times. We found a rocky spot in which to eat our lunches. The sandwiches were superb! This was just the rest I needed, and after lunch I was back to being a happy camper. Then Cornelia led us ever further, to the lower ice falls. Men with ice axes were maintaining the trail, and it was scary to see how they clung to the ice walls as if it was nothing. Craig moved aside some fallen ice and found one of those little plastic T's that affix price labels to clothing. They follow us! Every time I throw them away at home, they somehow find their ways out of the wastebasket and wind up on the floor. Now here one was attracted to Craig on the other side of the world. Weird! Past the lower ice falls it was very difficult going, and only technical climbers can really do it. Plus we were running low on time. We hiked back to the edge of the glacier and met up with a well-kept DOC track which got us back to the parking lot. As we deposited our wooden hiking poles into the barrel, a group of half-day hikers were just getting their crampons on. They would only get an hour on the ice, and they would only hit the more crowded areas (no lower ice falls). We were glad that we had chosen the all-day option. Back at the office, they gave us tongue-in-cheek certificates of achievement for our day. The whole thing, start to finish, lasted from 9:15 until 4:45. After that we crossed the street and ate dinner at Cook Saddle Cafe and Saloon. At the next table over were a bunch of Texans. It was still before official dinner time, but we could order bar food. Craig got a DB Draught along with fish and chips. I had an Archers and chicken nachos, which attracted the attention of the Texans - it was all they could talk about! After that we drove to the nearby Lake Matheson. We took a 30-minute tramp to the first lookout point. The sun set while we were there, and we could see gorgeous images of the mountains and vegetation reflected in the perfectly still water. We saw and heard ducks, heard an owl, and heard something that sounded like a Nazgul. It started to get a bit buggy and we began to walk back to the car. We could see the moon reflecting in the lake. The moonlight was so bright that we cast shadows. The well-kept DOC track was lit only by the moon. It was so serene and gorgeous! We then drove back into town and went into the bar at the Fox Glacier Hotel. I drank "KGB" vodka with lemon, and Craig sampled the various Fox Glacier beers. Fox Glacier Real Ale was a bit too wheaty, but he liked the Fox Glacier Golden Ice and the malty Old Dark. "Toy Story" was playing on the projection TV, but all you could hear was the jukebox. We perused our digital pictures and I wrote in the journal. I was getting tired, so we decided to play air hockey to wake me back up. We played a few games, and the best part was when Craig hit the puck and it left the table, rolled about 15 feet, and landed under the bar. We decided to forego a "real" campground and camp in the lot at Lake Matheson. We were in bed by 10 p.m., at which time we realized that the folks next to us killed their car battery by having its lights on, something we had predicted a few minutes earlier. |
 Fox Glacier  Fox Glacier Hike  Craig on Fox Glacier Hike  Peeking into a crevasse, Fox Glacier  Moon over Lake Matheson 
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