Day 5 - Once in lifetime experience - Helihike @ Fox Glacier

This is nature at work. A week after we left, 2 Australian Indians were crushed at the terminal when tonnes of ice collapsed as they went too close for pictures. Shocking, isn't it? Were we plain lucky? We had a good guide, who carefully examines each ice structure for signs of stress as we trampled on or walked under ice caves. Most importantly, the heli-hike experience allowed us to get as close as we could to these ancient structures in a safe and organized way. As laopo puts it, these are only a few countries in the world where glaciers are easily accessible. Yet New Zealand presents many many other fantastic wonders of the world...all in one place.


Our heli-hike experience started with a cranky bus ride to the take-off site. It was a really ancient bus - kind of reminded me of my primary school schoolbus, except it goes dead much more often (and it was only a 5 min journey). And one wonders if the chopper would behave the same. But the excitement on our faces were evident (mainly her since I don't get easily excited) as soon as we got on the helicopter. Being grossly underweight, she was put at the front seat and me at the back to balance the weight, seat belts tightened and ear muffs on. The chopper hovered over the ice-covered mountains and landed at ground zero. Teams 1 and 2 were already squatting with their backs at us as our chopper almost blew them off their feet.

Fox Glacier falls 2,600m on its 13km journey from the Southern Alps down to the coast, with it having the distinction of being one of the few glaciers to end among lush rainforest only 300 metres above sea level.

Our guide, Jeff, demonstrated as we strapped metal spikes over our boots. Each armed with a pole and off we went, in single file. Jeff led the way, clearing the ice with his axe, stamping on crushed ice to make stairs-like steps for us so all we have to do is to make sure we get our feet firm on the ground, and the spikes firm into it. The trick is to, contrary to how we walk normally, get the whole feet on the ground at the same time. Cos the spikes are in the middle, we'll probably not survive a few steps if we land on our heels.
Slowly, we climbed up the icy slopes. It was a spectacular sight as one looked down - the glacier stretches, meeting the sea at the horizon, where the weather appeared clear and sunny. Jeff said the thought of partying at the beaches in summer after work was what kept them going at times. A feature of the glacier was ice caves, formed by the ice surface bulging under pressure as the turns of the valley applied brakes on the sliding glacier. These caves come and go - the structure weakens as ice melts under sun and finally collapses. Jeff selected a few deemed safe and we crawled our way through - was extremely hard for the spikes to grip the ice blocks. Glaciers are such majestic structures, we were like ants crawling through my blanket, hoping that I won't sit on them.

A Q&A session ---- Why is glacier blue?

According to wiki, blue ice occurs when all of the air bubbles that are trapped in the ice are squeezed out, and the size of the ice crystals increases, making it clear. The blue color of the ice is a result of an overtone of a OH molecular stretch in the water which absorbs light at the red end of the visible spectrum.
The hike lasted 3 hours - Jeff said we had gone much further up the glacier than the other hikers that day. We returned to the landing site and rid ourselves of the hiking gear. The chopper that was supposed to bring us back came with the next group of hikers - in raincoats. By that time, the skies have turned grey and started to rain - I wonder how they could hike in wet, slippery ice.

When we returned to the town, it was sunshine again, typical of New Zealand weather. The highlight of the day has ended and we were ready for our next destination - Hokitika. I would be tempted to end the blog this way but there were more to come.

Dinner was some yucky Indian food - yucky curry chicken & yucky curry lamb. Okay, that's not the point but I have to mention cos it was really yucky. Highlight of the night was worms - yes, worms. Glowing ones, in fact. No, we didn't eat worms because we were still hungry after having yucky Indian food. The great thing about NZ is, you find treasures everywhere, even in a small town like Hokitika.

Just a few hundred meters from our hotel, there is this short passage into a forested area where some thousands (or more?) of glow worms reside. Apparently, they are the larvae of some kind of flies* [description below for those who are interested]. No photos but it's not hard to imagine, looked like a sea of fireflies (not that I have seen fireflies but I would imagine they look similar),

* glow worms -- the common name for various different groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females which glow through bioluminescence. There are a few major families found in different parts of the worlds. Based on wiki, the one we saw is called Arachnocampa, a genus of four fungus gnat species which are, in their larval stage. What’s interesting is the purpose of the glow – it varies. Some glow do so to attract a male for mating, some glow as a warning signal to predators. But the Arachnocampa larvae on the other hand glow to attract prey like midges into sticky snare lines for the larva to feed on.