“Ice capades” on the Franz Josef glacier

One of the most exciting experiences I had whilst travelling around New Zealand was exploring the majestic Franz Josef glacier. Named by the eminent German Geologist Julius von Haast in honour of the Emperor of Austria Franz Josef I of Austria.

The Franz Josef glacier (Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere) is on the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand. The glacier descends deep into the lush rainforest of Westland’s National Park, from a height of 2,700m above sea level to only 240m in less than 7 miles, making it the worlds steepest and fastest flowing commercially guided glacier.

In 1984 the glacier entered an advancing phase and at times advanced at the incredible (by glacial standards) rate of 70cm a day, about 10 times that of typical glaciers. However since 2008 it has entered a very rapid phase of retreat that can only be attributed to global warming.

The embarkation point for exploration of this hugely impressive natural phenomenon is Franz Josef township which lies about 3 miles from the glacier itself. The township has a petrol station, small but busy heliport, numerous tourist accommodation options (up to 2,000 people stay overnight during the main season) and a number of restaurants and shops.

I had the option of a 3-4 hour hike up to the first icefall of the glacier or a helicopter ride past the unstable terminal face to the remarkable Pinnacles area, where a guide would help me navigate through the maze and tunnels of ice. I chose the latter. (Since April 2012 all glacier walks require a helicopter flight past the unstable terminal face.)

The helicopter flight up was breathtakingly beautiful – an amazing introduction to helicopter travel. It was pretty overcast on the day but once we emerged from the cloud I had a real appreciation of the size and power of this lumbering beast of ice. Our landing was surprisingly smooth given the undulating nature of the landing site and my fellow travellers and I had soon jumped off ready to tackle our ice adventure.

Once on the ice itself I was grateful for the hobnail boots and walking stick provided to aid traction as we set off on our journey across the ridged surface. We were soon in amongst peaks, spirals and tunnels of ice forged by the wind and rain. The tunnels were large enough for us to clamber through, gingerly in some cases as they sat above deep crevices in the ice below.

We trekked across the glacier for about 2 hours and were able to take in the natural beauty of our surroundings even though the going was reasonably tough. The whole time I had a sense we were riding on top of a living entity slowly carving its way across the landscape. Although obviously any actual glacial movement was purely imagined.

This is a guest post by Jonathan Dove.