south island road trip!-Day 7

an awe inspiring scene just a few meters from where we fell asleep the night before

yummy glacier water!

franz joseph glacier

fox glacier

Day 7- The Glaciers

The night before when we had pulled over to sleep we kept hearing strange noises.  Feeling safe from creatures in our van we ignored it and fell asleep.  When I woke up the next morning I was surprised to hear that sounds had not stopped.  I got up and went outside and could see some water through the trees.  It must be ducks making all of that noise.  I walked along a short path to the water and what I saw took my breathe away.  The sun was rising behind the trees and partially lighting the fog covered lake.  On the smooth dark water tons of black swans glided gracefully their sillouettes set of by the white fog make their presence both mysterious and regal.  It was really incredible.  The only thing ungraceful about these creatures were the honking noises they made!  It was an amazing thing to wake up to.  Again, I was in the right place at the right time.

After that noisy wake up call we continued to head south for another exciting experince.  Its not often you get to see two glaciers in one day! We started off at Franz Joseph Glacier.  Before we even saw the glacier we could see the milky blue water running down from the mountains that we knew had to be glacier water.  We scooped some up in a water bottle to possibly drink later after we used my awesome UV light filter to clean it (we didnt end up filtering it we just drank it lol) and ate lunch by the water.  

When we finally got to franz joseph it was a long walk up to the glacier face.  It was a strange sight.  In one way it was kind of just like a pile of snow being squished between some mountains.  But it was quite immense and there was not snow anywhere else, in fact we were in short sleeves at this point.  We didnt get all the way to the face because we kept stopping along the way to look at pretty waterfalls or cool rocks.

Then we took about a half hour drive to Fox Glacier.  I actually think I liked this glacier better because the surroundings were immense and epic looking.  We walked as close to the face as we could get.  I kind of wish a could have touched it, but o well.  

It was pretty cool to see glaciers because there might be nothing left of them in a few years.  They may be the only ones ill ever see.