In Glacier Country there are two popular glaciers to visit, Franz Joseph and Fox, which are about 30 kilometres away from each other. While in the area, we decided to hit up Fox Glacier – I guess we were missing all the ice and snow everyone was telling us about at home.
The half day Fox Glacier walk is around 4 hours – with approximately an hour spent on the glacier. In order to access the glacier you have to climb up part of a mountain through the rainforest which is pretty sweet, you get to drink from a clean glacier runoff stream. After the mountain, you descend onto the ice, which as those back home know is decently slippery, and although you have cramp ons (shoe spikes) it is still decently difficult at times. With this said, you need to be in moderately decent shape to complete the glacier climb, as noted by the guiding company. Unfortunately people seem to ignore this note and decide to pay $99 to struggle through the climb. Or perhaps some people think that being moderately fit includes being 75 and having arthritis. Although this may have slowed down our experience and possibly decreased the amount of ice area covered, it was still pretty sweet. A big shout out to our guide Scott who had to be super patient with some of the “moderately fit” peeps on our excursion.
Jackie climbing Fox Glacier
When on the ice you get a chance to see how the glacier has moved throughout time and really see how quickly the shape of the glacier changes. You can see the run off from the melting ice all around you, which was definitely more then I would have expected to witness. As you walk up, there are incredible sites all around as you walk through crevasses and ice ridges. We chose to do the glacier first thing in the morning which was pretty sweet as we got to witness the guiding team chip out guiding paths for the day with ice axes – glad I wasn’t doing it haha.
Jarrett enjoying the ice at Fox Glacier
Overall, the glacier walk was pretty good – despite the slow pokes haha. Maybe we should go check out our glacier in Jasper when we get home 
Funny how you take natural scenery for granted when you live there!
Also, on the way back down the glacier we got into conversation with our guide Scott about our trip who gave us wicked tips about Dunedin, our next stop…
Glad you enjoyed your brief visit with ice and snow. It always seems more exciting when it’s temporary. By the way.. you guys look great..Thanks for the pictures of the two of you.