In Fox Glacier I signed up for a guided glacier hike. The Fox Glacier is rare because the glacier actually flows down through a rain forest. We hiked through the rain forest before reaching the glacier. The water there is so clean that we were able to drink from the water flowing over these rocks. It was so cold and fresh. Wonderful!
Once we cleared the rain forest, we had a spectacular view of the glacier. The Fox Glacier is among the 1% of the world's glacier that are growing in size. The Fox Glacier was shrinking from the 1930's until about the 1980's. During the 1980's, Australia started to experience a drought. This caused extremely dry air masses to move over the ocean between the two continents and pick up a lot of moisture before reaching New Zealand. Due to the mountains on the western portion of the island, this moist air causes additional precipitation to fall at the top of the glacier. This additional precipitation has caused the glacier to change from shrinking in size to growing in size. Our guide showed us the low point of the glacier back in the 1980's and the glacier has actually grown a significant amount since that time.
If you click on the picture below, you can see the guides working on cutting steps into the glacier for us to walk on. This gives a scale to show how large the glacier is.
Alright, alright...I'll admit that this was a mock picture. I didn't actually need the ice pick.
Here is a picture of my group hiking along the glacier.
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