Franz Josef

Today I ventured south from Hokitika.  This is the Whataroa River, coursing through the Southern Alps to the sea.

I'm staying in the town of Franz Josef.  It's me and a ton of Brits, Germans, Chinese, and French.  Here we're all trekking to the snout of the Franz Josef Glacier.  This is a unique ice river.  At latitude 43 south, it descends to a little below 1000 feet elevation!  Nowhere else in the world does this happen.  It's possible because there are 12 thousand foot mountains, Cook and Tasman, just 20 miles from the sea...and the snowfields at the head of the glacier get up to 30 meters of snow...close to 100 feet...each year!  The snow solidifies into ice and plunges downhill at speeds up to 13 feet a day...this is the Usain Bolt of glaciers.  Of course, at these low elevations the glacier melts rapidly too...the Franz Josef has retreated at least a mile in the past 150 years, though there was a period in the 1990s when it advanced due to exceptionally heavy snow.

Blue glacial river water with a gnarly branch makes for an unusual picture...especially in the midst of a temperate rainforest.

Here's the glacier and its outlet stream.  My cabin is only about 5 miles from here.

Yes, the Lizards are doing the glacier!  However, they maintain that ice should be confined to floating in glasses where it can cool adult beverages.

This is the end of Franz Josef.  It took me awhile to realize this fact, but the big arch is actually dirty ice!  While high alpine glaciers are things of beauty, their snouts are usually scruffy, untidy, and not at all picturesque.  Blow up the pic and you can see a couple chunks of ice under the arch...showing why tourons are not permitted to approach any closer to the snout.  Icefalls are common there...especially in summer when temperatures are in the 60s and 70s.

A triple waterfall near the glacier.  The valley downstream from the ice is spectacular, with numerous waterfalls, blooming rata trees, and lush forest that makes an odd juxtaposition with the glacier.  It's like Kauai and the Canadian Rockies, in the same place!