Being a physical geographer at heart I've always had a fascination with glaciers and woooah, looky looky here, there's a fine, accessible example of a glacier on NZ's west coast at Franz Josef. What a stroke of luck.
I used my newly adopted 'precision tourism' approach - get in, see the glacier, get out. This was lucky as Franz Josef is a tiny spot with nothing to do other than see the glacier...and it was absolutely tipping it down with rain. I really can't describe how hard it was raining. It was coming down so hard that you thought it couldn't possibly rain any harder...and then it did. And after that brief increase in intensity, it upped the ante and started raining harder still. It was like an open air power shower (the power being 10 to the nine).
A bleak west coast beach and my attempted 'arty shot'. Maybe I should stick to macrame.
The Franz Josef glacier from about 3kms away. It's a big ol' beasty.
Up onto the glacier. Interestingly (for me anyway) the Franz Josef glacier is quite unusual in that it comes down to almost sea level and into the forest line. Our guide, in a bid to educate us, asked us why we thought the glacier was so unusual. I had all the answers (naturally) and had to bite my tongue so I didn't appear like the class spod and so he could look knowledgeable. In case you were wondering it's due to a combination of massive precipitation (7m of rainfall p.a. at sea level equating to 50m of snow at the accumulation zone), massive collection bowl (corrie) and very steep descent meaning it travels fast (for a glacier that is...I could still take it in a sprint) and to lower altitudes than its less well fed cousins. So ends the geography lesson.
A crevasse in the glacier. All strangely blue, which is better than being Strangely Brown.
Gordon & Phyllis whom I met at the FJ hostel. A fine and sprightly couple with a taste for adventure. And they come from Norfolk - Up The Canaries! If I have half as much energy as them in my 60s I'll be doing very well.
2 comments:
Up the Canaries?????? With that much energy, perhaps Gordon and Phylis should be playing for Naaaarwich instead of the current line up of donkeys!
Who rattled your cage Picadilly Weeper? Now, let's see...Ipswich 35 pts Norwich 34 pts. Maybe we could give you Gordon & Phyllis on loan.
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