Did you bring the cups for Fox Glacier’s packed ice?
- Fox Glacier is a glacier located in the West Coast region of South Island in New Zealand.
- Fox Glacier was named after the former New Zealand Prime Minister, Sir William Fox, who visited the glacier in 1872.
- Fox Glacier starts at the Southern Alps, falls 2,600 metres (8,500 feet) over its 13 kilometre (8.1 mile) length, and ends near the coast in temperate rainforest 250 to 300 metres (820 to 984 feet) above sea level.
- During 2006 to 2009, Fox Glacier was advancing forward approximately a metre (3.3 feet) every week, but since then, it has been retreating.
- Fox Glacier is among the most accessible glaciers in the world, with 1000 visits every day during the popular tourist season.
Fox Glacier
Image courtesy of Flying Kiwi Tours/Flickr
- A guide is recommended for those who want to venture onto Fox Glacier, and one should not pass the provided boundaries, as ice and rock collapses have caused fatalities.
- Fox Glacier can reach a compacted ice depth of 100 metres (328 feet), and is mostly coloured blue.
- Occasionally the Fox Glacier causes flash flooding in the valley below, due to the ice trapping water in cavities, which break open, releasing the water.
- ‘Fox Glacier’ is known as ‘Te Moeka o Tuawe’ in the New Zealand indigenous Māori language.
- The Fox River is partly sourced by the Fox Glacier, and the glacier forms part of the Unesco World Heritage Site, Te Wähipounamu.
Bibliography: Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, 2011, Fox Glacier Guiding, http://www.foxguides.co.nz/our-location/fox-and-franz-josef-glaciers
Fox Glacier, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Glacier
McSaveney E, Glaciers and Glaciation, 2012, TEARA, http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/glaciers-and-glaciation/page-2
