Thursday, December 07, 2006

nz part two..the glaciers

Approaching the Franz Josef glacier, so-called 'warm' glacier; rapid glacier melt gives rise to vegetation in close proximity... i think =P


Franz Josef glacier terminal face..note the stream of people exploring it..probably people who signed up for the same package with the same glacier hiking company .. we all wore identical blue waterproof attire. Really gloomy day with frequent showers, but that didn't douse the majesty of the glacier though.



I didn't take this shot but personally, I thought it was quite hilariously well composed lol.. ps jy and ww squashed between two gigantic blocks of ice..or rather in a narrow ice crevice.. ps and jy looking particularly squeezy but all three happy nonetheless hehe..we were on the 3/4 day Glacier explorer hike.. just a whole lot of hiking up and around the ice formations.. trudging around with leaden cramptons clamped onto our iceboots for better grip on the ice..could have been better if the weather let up abit and allowed us to take more photos..but alas, it kept pouring and that dampened our motivation to whip out the cams.. as you can see from the pic all of our outer raincoats are drenched from the precipitation.. the franz josef region gets 7-8m of rainfall annually gosh..


the kea, or some nz native alpine parrot that hung around us from the midst of the ice formations to the bottom of the terminal face.. the misty look of this picture is because of the drizzle and slight condensation on the lens ..
brief look at the Fox glacier..note the emerald waters of glacier melt below...

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