Phew – very lucky that the weather was ok for us to get up onto the Fox Glacier by helicopter today – apparently 1/3 of trips are cancelled due to cloud/rain/crappy forecast so we would have been gutted to come to this rather one horse town and not be able to go up (the third slot of the day after us was called off..)
So up we flew onto the glacier – on went the crampons and out came the ice poles, bloody useful to check what you're about to stand on is hard ice rather than waist high water, as happened to one soul.
Lovely and sunny to the point that I was only in a t-shirt and a thin fleece most of the day, and pilates trousers, rocking the look as ever.
Lots of lovely blue ice, holes, arches and mini caves, as we tramped up and down, trying not to drop the camera in any icy pools.. H even refilled his water bottle from the – funnily enough – freezing clear mini waterfall.
Very pleased that I managed to just about keep up as the pace was a tad faster than I was hoping and I was very keen not to fall.. Check out this delightful photo of me not entirely standing straight next to H – – the back support was working hard but I look ridiculous in this one! Hunchback-tastic.
Then suddenly the weather drew in – on went our jackets and the guides were all looking worried as it has been known for guests to have to spend the night on the glacier if the helicopters think the visibility is too poor to collect us. Apparently they have food for 150 people and tents etc further down the mountain but we were v relieved when the chopper came, scooped us up (we were in Group 1, thank god) and we made it back to town.
Suspect I'll be feeling happily sore tomorrow – nice to have nailed it. 'Mountain goat!" I said triumphantly at the end, 'big polar bear' said my dear husband, just before I pushed him over the ledge… almost.
And that was our last official 'thing' – now its just a drive tomorrow, the train from Greymouth to Christchurch, dinner with chums there, a flight to Auckland and then the main trip home – easy peasy. Back on Sat x