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| Joseph de Ca'th Lon contemplates Fox Glacier |
Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and his friends have visited two of the most beautiful places in New Zealand: Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers.
It's not a comfortable trip because you must have a well-fit to resist
the rythm of the mountain guides who walk across dangerous snowed paths.
Because of this, The Grandma has preferred to rent a helicopter
to contemplate the site and to have got an easier visit. The helicopter
has chosen the best places to land off and they have walked across the
snow in a short trip, in the easiest track.
During the flight from Queenstown to the Westland Tai Poutini National Park, site of the glaciers, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Grammar 29).
More information: Verb/adjective + preposition
Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe is a 13-kilometre-long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.
It was named in 1872 after a visit by then Prime Minister of New Zealand Sir William Fox. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the glacier was officially altered to Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe.
More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai
Fed by four alpine glaciers, Fox Glacier falls 2,600 m on its 13 km journey from the Southern Alps
down to the coast, with it having the distinction of being one of the
few glaciers to end among lush rainforest only 300 metres above sea
level.
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| Claire Fontaine visits Fox Glacier |
The glacier was advancing between 1985 and 2009, although retreating throughout most of the last 100 years. In 2006 the average rate of advance was about a metre a week.
In January 2009, the terminal face of the glacier was still advancing and had vertical or overhanging faces which were continually collapsing. Since then there has been a significant retreat, with the 2009 high level clearly visible as vegetation line on the southern slope above what is left of the lower glacier today.
The outflow of the glacier forms the Fox River. During the last ice age, its ice reached beyond the present coastline, and the glacier left behind many moraines during its retreat. Lake Matheson formed as a kettle lake within one of these.
More information: New Zealand
Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere is a 12 km long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Together with the Fox Glacier 20 km to the south, and a third glacier, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres above sea level.
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| The Grandma & Tonyi visit Franz Josef Glacier |
The area surrounding the two glaciers is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site park. The river emerging from the glacier terminal of Franz Josef is known as the Waiho River.
The first European description of one of the west coast glaciers, believed to be Franz Josef, was made in the log of the ship Mary Louisa in 1859. The glacier was later named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria by the German explorer, Julius von Haast in 1865.
The Māori name for the glacier is Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere, The tears of Hine Hukatere, arising from a local legend: Hine Hukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to climb with her. Wawe was a less experienced climber than Hine Hukatere but loved to accompany her until an avalanche swept Wawe from the peaks to his death. Hine Hukatere was broken-hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the glacier was officially altered to Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere.
More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai
Franz Josef Glacier is currently 12 km long and terminates 19 km from the Tasman Sea. Fed by a 20-square-kilometre large snowfield at high altitude, it exhibits a cyclic pattern of advance and retreat, driven by differences between the volume of meltwater at the foot of the glacier and volume of snowfall feeding the névé.
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| Tina Picotes walks across Franz Josef Glacier |
The glacier advanced rapidly during the Little Ice Age, reaching a maximum in the early eighteenth century. Having retreated several kilometres between the 1940s and 1980s, the glacier entered an advancing phase in 1984 and at times has advanced at the phenomenal, by glacial standards, rate of 70 cm a day.
The flow rate is about 10 times that of typical glaciers. Over the longer term, the glacier has retreated since the last ice age, and it is believed that it extended into the sea some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.
This cyclic behaviour is well illustrated by a postage stamp issued in 1946, depicting the view from St James Anglican Church. The church was built in 1931, with a panoramic altar window to take advantage of its location. By 1954, the glacier had disappeared from view from the church, but it reappeared in 1997. This is due to the highly variable conditions on the snowfield, which take around 5–6 years before they result in changes in the terminus location.
More information: New Zealand
The glacier was still advancing until 2008, but since then it has entered a very rapid phase of retreat. As of 2018 it is again rapidly advancing. As is the case for most other New Zealand glaciers which are mainly found on the eastern side of the southern alps, the shrinking process is attributed to global warming.
There have been some incidents of jökulhlaups, outbreak floods from water-filled ice tunnels, at the glacier, with one destroying a bridge on the access route in 1989. Based on past variations, scientists expect that Franz Josef Glacier will retreat 5 km and lose 38% of its mass by 2100 in a mid-range scenario of warming.
The Waiho Loop is the terminal moraine of the glacier, and indicates the extent of the Franz Josef Glacier, about 12,000 years ago. Too rugged to be cleared for farming it remains covered in native forest.
More information: Glacier Country
The alpine environment is very delicate. I've been able to see change in the mountains in the 20 years that I've been climbing full-time.
Glaciers have receded. The tree-line is changing.
That's very rapid to see nature changing in a 20-year period.
Conrad Anker
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