We traveled down to Fox Glacier today. The two glaciers aren't very far away from each other as the crow flies, but as with every other place in New Zealand, the road seems to take the longest possible route. There are more curves on the road here than a room full of page 3 models.

What's the difference between Frans Josef and Fox glaciers? Everything and nothing. They're both fed from the same Neve, or snow field, up in the mountains. The Frans valley is a little steeper and straighter, so the glacier moves faster. The Fox terminal face is a little closer to the main car park. Apart from that, a glacier is constantly changing as it flows, so the landscape on a glacier can change completely from one day to the next. I'll probably be climbing Fox later this month with Em, so I'll be able to make a bit of a comparison later...

There's three of us that decided to get off the bus as Frans Josef and make our way down to Fox. Bruce, Louise and myself hired some bikes and went exploring. We cycled out to Lake Mathesson, the most photographed lake in New Zealand. It reflects Mt Cook in it's mirror like surface. A dozen or more shots later, we moved on to the glacier. It's a hard cycle up to the view point, but there's a nice little track that you can follow that goes up one side of the valley and then down the other - I'll take the car next time though!

To tomorrow