Bird-watching and Glacier-hiking

After our night in Hokitika, we continued our drive south along the west coast. Next stop was Okarito Lagoon, locally famous as the only New Zealand nesting grounds for great white herons. We rented kayaks and paddled up the lagoon and into side streams as the tide came in, and then turned back as the tide rolled out (good planning by Eric!). It's late in the season, but we saw several beautiful herons plus lots of other seabirds.

That evening, we arrived in the village of Fox Glacier, and I was thrilled to add another bird to my New Zealand list: the wood pigeon, or kereru. It's somewhat rare, but a tree at our motel had 7 kereru in it at one time!

The next day was brilliantly sunny and warm, perfect for our day on the ice. We signed up for a guided all-day tour, were outfitted with sturdy boots and crampons and set off. After a short bus ride to a car park, we hiked about an hour through rainforest to the terminal end of Fox Glacier. Going from lush green ferns, waterfalls and moss to solid ice is striking. The front of the glacier is 100 meters high and it measures 12 km in length, but the valley it has carved is so deep that perspective is tough. Once on the ice, wearing crampons and using poles, we hiked up to some ice falls and saw amazing glacier features: crevasses, seracs, moulins. The weather did turn cooler as we were surrounded more and more by ice, but our guide (Dave from England) knew the way out.

New ice is formed as up to 50 meters of snow falls at the top of the glacier annually. Fox Glacier is a relatively fast moving glacier, and the ice moves downhill a few meters everyday. Unfortunately, ice at the bottom is melting faster than it is being made at the top, and Fox Glacier, like most glaciers worldwide, is receding overall.