New Zealand day 16

 Looking up from the village of Franz Josef

                        The Franz Josef Glacier, within sight of the Tasman Sea about 9 miles away, was named for an Austrian, Emperor Franz Joseph.  Old Franz never saw the glacier, or New Zealand—or anywhere else outside his empire, for that matter.  But Austrian explorer Julius Haast, who had named just about everything around here for himself, was running short of money, and thought naming something special for someone rich might help his finances.  Sort of like University presidents in our country do from time to time.  So Julius, claiming this giant glacier reminded him of the emperor’s beard (never mind that the emperor never could grow much more than a stubble of a beard), named it accordingly.  And sure enough, next time Julius was received by the emperor back home, Franz awarded him a significant stipend.  And since there are around 300 glaciers in this area known as the Southern Alps, you might want to consider coming down and naming one of them for Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.  You never know when it could bring great profits to you, as well.

 Franz Joseph Glacier from the ground

            The glacier is one of only three in the world that flow into a subtropical rain forest.  The second one, Fox Glacier, is just down the road from us, and the third one is in Argentina.  The little village of Franz Joseph is by far the warmest place we have been on this trip, and the glacier is melting like crazy.  While it is advancing down the mountain slopes at a rate of up to 15 feet a day (three feet on slow days), the bottom of the glacier is melting faster than that, so it appears that the glacier is retreating.  But as we all know, glaciers never retreat; they just melt away.  In fact, this glacier is melting rapidly, and has been doing so for more than 150 years.  If you want absolute, irrefutable proof that global warming caused by humans is a myth, here it is.  The melting here, and elsewhere, far predates the industrial age.  Of course, if you want absolute, irrefutable proof that humans are a significant factor in global warming, visit Greenland or the area in northernmost Canada.  As for me, when it comes to information on global warming, I rely on whatever I am told by Fox News, MSNBC, politicians, and editorial writers.  Those guys all know far more than the stupid scientists.

 Only way to arrive on a glacier

            The principal reason the glaciers exist here at all is the huge amount of annual precipitation.  The village gets an average of 9 feet of rain each year; and at the top of the glacier, the moist winds coming in from the Tasman Sea to the west dump around 30 feet per year.  Friends,  that is a lot of water.

 

Franz Joseph from the helicopter

            On a beautiful, absolutely clear day, a group of ten of us took two helicopters up a couple thousand feet and landed on this magnificent glacier, followed by a guided tour of two hours.  We walked and gawked quite a way up the glacier, pausing to watch pieces breaking off high above us. The hike lasted for more than two hours,  and was a real adventure.  We passed through little ice caves, crossed tiny streams of glacial water runoff, and climbed up to see a waterfall within a glacier.  It was so incredible that we can only give you a few photos to convey the feeling.

  Just a small waterfall 200 yards behind us

Climbing down an ice cave

 Blue ice crevasse

 

Cool drink of glacier water

 To give a little perspective

            To celebrate this most impressive day of our journey, Tricia went through the local shops and Charlie went back to the room to do laundry.  But he was distracted by a display of ice cream in the local wildlife center.  The lady at the counter tried to talk me into the Hokey Pokey, saying it was the favorite of American author Steve Berry when he passed through here a couple of years ago.  But I had already experienced a delicious cone of that national flavor, and wanted something new.  The caramelita flavor in the freezer was a bit too much like plain caramel, but the macadamia dulce—indescribable.  As you know, the macadamia flavor is a subtle one, and bringing it out so those with mere ordinary palates can appreciate the taste—well, that is an art.  It can be reported accurately that whoever makes the ice cream for the wildlife center in Franz Joseph is a genuine artiste.  If I hadn’t been afraid Tricia would catch me, I would have sneaked one more cone of it.

            To rest our weary bones, we spent time soaking in the local thermal pools and opening the bottle of special wine we had purchased in Marlborough Country for just such an occasion.  We also spent some time wondering how we are going to top today’s experience.  That will be quite a challenge.

Charlie & Tricia

©2013