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q i n f o r m a t i o n b o o k l e t & INTERA C TI v e C D • ROM q
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q to the q q information booklet q q INTERA C TI v e C D • ROM q INSIDE: History, insights and information about THE Fox Glacier and the surrounding areas that helped shape it
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As Tuawe didn’t live in the mountains, he wasn’t very confident climbing up to visit his lady. Of course love being what it is he made the trip many times! One day he slipped and fell to his death. Māori believe that his final resting place became his bed, or his ‘moeka’. So it is Te Moeka O Tuawe: ‘The bed of Tuawe’. His ice princess Hine was so filled with grief at the death of her lover that she wept for millions of years and her frozen tears have filled the two valleys creating the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers.
< OPP. PAGE: Rarakiroa / Mt Tasman
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A long time ago, Māori legend tells us that there was a Māori Princess who lived high in the snows of Rarakiroa. Her name was Hine Hukatere and her lover was a young warrior named Tuawe.
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Situated in the Tai Poutini National Park, part of the Te Wahi Pounamu South West New Zealand World Heritage Area ...
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Above: The néve, a thirty square kilometre basin where the snow accumulates and feeds the Fox Glacier. Below: View of the lower Fox Glacier from The Chalet Lookout as it has retreated and advanced over the years.
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Over 3000 glaciers grace the slopes of the Southern Alps. That’s more than all of the European Alps put together.
As the ice melts on the lower slopes of the glacier, patches of red dust appear, proving that link between the hot desert winds of Australia and the cold snows of New Zealand.
Warm northerly winds start on the famous red deserts of Australia. Crossing the Tasman Sea, the wind gathers a large amount of evaporation, only to run into the 3000 metre barrier of the Southern Alps.
The néve, or birth place of the glacier is a thirty square kilometre basin high in the mountains where the snow accumulates. Over many years the snow compresses into ice, and is pulled by gravity into the narrow outlet of the Fox valley. The steep valley and warm climate helps the ice to flow quickly. A snow flake from the top of the mountain will be melting at the terminal face of the glacier approximately 60 years later. Large amounts of snow over several years cause the glacier to speed up, as it flows into the valley.
how Glaciers work RED KEY: 1 Area of snow accumulation 2 Area of ice melt 3 Equilibrium line 4 Snowline gold key: 1 Annual layers, snow and firn 2 Basal erosion 3 Icefall 4 Basal till 5 Subglacial streams 6 Englacial till 7 Subglacial moraine 8 River gravel
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based on original drawn by t.j. chinn
As the moist air rises to flow over the mountains, temperatures drop and moisture condenses. Five metres of rain per year in the Fox Glacier township increases to 15 metres in the upper Fox valley, and the rain turns to snow on the high peaks of the Alps.
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The balance of ice vs melt tips one way and the glacier starts to advance. Less snow means the balance tips the other way, as the glacier slows below melt rate and starts to retreat.
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DIG DEEPER ~ Did you know?
e The Fox Glacier Carpark is only 240m above sea level e The glacier has advanced 1 km and doubled its depth between 2000 and mid 2009
Starting near the 3,500 metre mountains of Aoraki Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, a unique combination of climate and shape has Fox Glacier moving at up to five metres each day. Thirteen kilometres of ice twist and turn as the glacier plunges downwards on its journey towards the sea. At each turn, the ice is torn apart into towering seracs and bottomless crevasses. While the surface glitters white in the sunlight, the depths glow with a surreal blue.
Stand on the banks of Lake Matheson, and look towards the mountains. Imagine it is 9000BC.
A huge cliff of ice towers above you, ice stretches back towards the Fox Valley, only the very tops of the high peaks protrude from the white expanse. The Fox Glacier of yesterday! It will be another 8000 years before the first human eyes gaze in awe on this fantastic scene. By then the glacier has retreated some five kilometres and the terminal hovers in the mouth of the valley.
Climate change alters the delicate balance of snow accumulation and melt rate, causing the glacier to advance or retreat at various times. Measured over the last few thousand years the glacier has retreated far into the mountains, but the glacier has advanced rapidly down the valley between 2000 and mid 2009. Regaining a beauty not seen for more than fifty years, only Mother Nature knows if this will continue!
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Visitors of today must search another four kilometres back into the mountains to catch a glimpse of what remains of this river of ice. Even so Fox Glacier is possibly the easiest glacier in the world to visit.
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The 1500 metre thick layer of ice that once covered the Fox township, has disappeared completely. Land once smothered by ice, is now clothed in 800 year old trees.
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DIG DEEPER ~ Did you know?
e Aoraki/Mt Cook was 3766m high, but on 14 Dec 1991 it lost 12m in height leaving it at 3754m e 15 July 2009 an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude hit Fiordland – NZ’s largest for 80 years
Beach pebbles 1900 metres above sea level give an insight into the geological history of our mountains.
Although rather short on a global scale, Aoraki Mount Cook and Mount Tasman are very special in their own right. Rising over 3,500 metres and being so close to the sea, puts them in the same class as Mount Everest for height gained in one slope.
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Less than 2 million years ago, immense pressure and stress between the Australian and Pacific Tectonic plates caused the sea bed to fold up into a series of wrinkles. Slowly these folds in the rock got bigger and higher, rising out of the sea until they formed the mountain range now known as the Southern Alps of New Zealand.
PHOTO: ulrich walthert
Rocks in the Fox Valley show the distinctive layering of metamorphic schist. Based on sediments from the bottom of the sea, heat and pressure have produced the chocolate cake layer effect, with the white quartz being forced between layers of sand. Reflective surfaces and lumpy garnets protruding from the broken rock make the valley a geologistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s playground.
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Numerous earthquakes are still thrusting the mountains about 10 mm higher each year, making them amongst the fastest rising mountains in the world.
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DIG DEEPER ~ Did you know?
e Cone Rock towers 277m above the Fox Valley carpark e 1000 tonne rocks routinely tumble into the valley
Huge rocks dot the river bed below the Fox Glacier. Some are left behind by the retreating glacier, but most have tumbled down from the heights of the Fox Valley walls. What makes this environment so unstable?
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Consider that the Fox Valley has been full of ice for at least the last three ice ages. It is only in the last 100 years of climate change that the glacier has retreated far enough to free the lower valley of all ice. The U shaped valley walls have been supported by glacial ice for some 14000 years! Suddenly the support has melted away. High rainfall, cold winters and hot summers cause the steep rock walls to erode relatively quickly. BELOW: Tortured Schist
Sink holes full of incredibly blue water surround the car park in the Fox Valley.
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These craters in the riverbed are caused by a huge lump of ice hiding under the ground. No longer attached to the retreating glacier, this is now called dead ice. Being under the ground, the ice is very well insulated, so only small areas melt at any one time. The lakes are formed when the river bed above collapses into the resulting underground cavern. Crushed and pulverized by the weight of ice in the glacier, metamorphic schist leave a lot of very fine sediments in the water. The short wavelength of blue coloured light can penetrate deep into the water, only to reflect back from the very finest sediments, causing the eerie blue glow. Bubbles of air trapped in the ice, rise to the surface of the lake as the underground ice melts away. Seemingly the water is boiling, which gives meaning to the name for the Kettle Lakes.
The air bubbles trapped in the snow are squeezed smaller and smaller until they disappear. Deep in the glacier the ice is clear and dense, but on the surface it has the appearance of sugar, as the air bubbles expand again, to lift the surface of loose ice crystals. Towering seracs and deep crevasses allow the visitor to peek into the cold clear interior of the glacier. Blue ice glows in the depths. The sugar-like surface looks white because the air bubbles reflect all the colours of the spectrum. But only the short blue wave lengths can penetrate deep into the ice.
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As the soft snows of Mt Tasman and Mt Douglas flow into the neve of the glacier, immense pressure compacts the flakes into ice.
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DIG DEEPER ~ Did you know?
e 5m of rain per year falls in the Fox Glacier township e 15m of rain per year falls in the upper valley e The Mt Cook Lily is the largest ranuncular (buttercup) in the world
Where, in places it is so windy, that the bushes grow without leaves. Yet close by, the rainforest is so lush that 28 different species of plant live on one stalk. Where there are 200 types of fern, with some of them growing over 20 metres tall and other ferns have babies, not seeds. Where the atmosphere is so clean and unpolluted, that there are more lichens growing than anywhere else in the world.
BELOW: Staghorn Lichen
Where at times the trees are covered with blood-red flowers that have no scent, and yet other trees have small insignificant flowers that fill the air with perfume. Where orchids flower only a few metres from cold ice. Where in the early days prospectors recovered alluvial gold at the rate of half a kilo to each cubic metre of gravel. Where tourists frequently visit, but with little effort, you can still be the only person there. Tired of imagining? Come and visit Fox Glacier!
BELOW: Brown Tree Frog
ABOVE: Mt Cook Lily; BELOW: Huhu Beetle
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Where some insects glow in the dark, and others spend months frozen solid in ice.
Where there is a parrot that belongs high in the mountains, but would rather pose for photos in the carpark, and a tiny wren that burrows into the snow to avoid stormy weather.
PHOTO: NGA MANU IMAGES
Imagine a place where it is so wet that the rainfall is measured in metres, that frogs don’t live in ponds, they live in trees.
Growing as a huge tree, or as a twisting vine, the rata provides a splash of scarlet red to the motled green of the temperate rain forest.
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A member of the Metrosideros family of trees, the rata is the New Zealand equivalent to the eucalypts of Australia. The many small red flowers provide nectar for the birds and insects. Being one of the quicker growing trees of the forest, enables the rata to become the dominant tree species following in the footsteps of the retreating glacier.
For obvious reasons, the punga is also called the tree fern. The umbrella of spreading fonds is often part of the forest canopy.
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As the new fond unfurls from its tight spiral, the Māori call it Koru, as it signifies the beginning of new life. The perfect coil is often repeated in their wood carvings, and is also the symbol of our national airline.
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On top of a 30 metre column of hairy bark, this is one of the tallest ferns in the world.
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The iridescent green head and white apron of the plump Kereru, give her a motherly appearance. Sitting quietly on a low branch, or diving and swooping across the road, the Kererū or native Wood Pigeon is often seen in the glacier valley. Of New Zealand’s unusually large native birds, the Kereru is one of the few survivors. The iconic trees of the region could grow huge seeds and fruit, confident that the extra large birds could eat and so disperse the seed. Now that most of the other giant birds of New Zealand have become extinct, the portly Kereru is the last to provide this essential service.
Take a large hooked beak, a bright intelligent eye, and a dark green coat with red arm pits.
Taking advantage of the fast food often supplied by humans, gives the kea plenty of time for recreation. This often involves pulling motor cycle seats into small pieces of foam rubber, or dismantling the windscreen wipers on campervans. A source of wonderment for their dexterity and boldness, kea should not be fed, but left to search the mountains for their natural fare of roots and berries.
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Mix with a very large portion of confidence and you have Nestor Notabilis, the only alpine parrot in the world.
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DIG DEEPER Key Points of Interest in Fox Glacier.
1 Aoraki (Mt Cook) 2 Mt Tasman 3 Fox Glacier 4 Fox Glacier Township
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DIG DEEPER Fox facts at a glance: S 13kms from the
main divide to the terminal face S Nevé – 30 square kms S Glacier depth – up to 350m S Glacier terminates at 250m above sea level S 35-45m of snow fall per year
NEW ZE AL AND BOOKING
www.foxguides.co.nz PO Box 38, Fox Glacier, New Zealand Freephone 0800 111 600 T +64 3 751 0825 F +64 3 751 0857 E info@foxguides.co.nz