Fox Glacier

We took a bus from Queenstown to Fox Glacier and stopped in a few scenic locations. Once again we had nice cloud cover whenever we were near beautiful mountains.  Normally the picture above would also include a gorgeous mountain in the reflection. Oh, well.

We arrived in the town of Fox Glacier and there was a nice cloud cover. We signed up for a helicopter ride, but conditions were not looking favorable. We decided to walk out to the glacier so that we would not miss seeing it.  It was amazing seeing the signs as we drove up the road still a mile or more from the glacier "1907", "1945" etc. The glacier is retreating VERY quickly. The busdriver said they estimate there will be no glacier remaining within 7 years!

At about 4:15 we got a call that the clouds had lifted in some areas and our helicopter ride was a "go". We got out over the Fox Glacier, 10 minutes into our 40 minute ride before our pilot decided that the clouds were "back" and there would be no charge for the short ride. Fine with us, we got to see at least some of what we wanted and also got to experience riding in a helicopter! All for free!

Fox glacier from land.

Fox glacier from air.

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