Fox Glacier

The bus left Nelson at 7:15 am and arrived in Fox Glacier at 6:40. I was exhausted by the time we got there in spite of the many rest stops we made at cafes along the way. I only planned 2 nights in Fox Glacier which gave me one full day to explore the area. There is another glacier called Franz Josef just a short distance away, but figured Fox would be a bit quieter. I thought if I only get this one chance to see Fox Glacier, I better do it right. So I woke up at 5am, dressed in the dark and had a quick breakfast and hit the highway in the dark. The glacier and the snow capped mountains behind it were to the east of the hiking trail and therefore the sun would rise directly behind them.
Now would be the time to reveal my amazing National-Geographic-eat-your-heart-out photo of the stunning sunrise, only...I hiked the 2k from town to the trail head before 6am, sunrise was at 6:15 so I didn't have a minute to spare to hike the other 2k to the lookout. When I got there, the sign at the trail said Fox Glacier Viewing Area: 4k....oh craaap. I picked up the pace, sweating and cursing my poor planning. I was exactly half of the way there when I saw the sky above me light up in a gorgeous jewel blue with pink highlights along the east side of the clouds. There goes my one shot. I pointed the camera up and got a few shots of my proof of disappointment and slowed down. Sweat was dripping down my neck and my right leg beginning to ache from its rude awakening to a morning of exercise I apparently failed to inform it of. I was at that moment though that I realized that I was 4k deep from the nearest sign of civilization (cursory as even that was) in the beautifully lush and green NZ rain forest. Disappointment over the missed sunrise ebbing, I started hearing the birds around me and hiked on in the wee peaceful hours of the morning. I can't remember a time I felt more completely serene than at that moment. I turned off from my original route to Chalet Lookout in favor of the trail to the swing bridge over Fox River. In the end I hiked for 2 and a half hours before seeing a single person. It was marvelous. For those few hours the glacier and the forest were entirely mine. I hiked back out the access road which was opened to traffic at 8am, so the first tour bus passed me on the road taking a load of visitors to the parking lot near the terminal face of the glacier. They would only have to walk about 30 minutes to see the glacier up close, something I never did do in the end, but they would have the helicopter tours circling overhead every 10 minutes and dozens of other tourists jockeying for their snap shot in front of the ice. And for those of you wondering, I did get a good view of the glacier from a different lookout than the one I was originally aiming for and it is a huge chunk of ice laying on the valley floor. It is even pretty dirty, at that. Just looks like a bad day to go skiing to me. But an excellent day for a hike in the rain forest.
I did get a few shots along the way:



Before the sunrise







Swing bridge over Fox River







Trail through the rain forest






My camera kept throwing the white balance way out because it wouldn't believe there could be this much green in one place.