the route

Sunday, March 9

Fox Glacier to Franz Josef Glacier. Just a short hop up the coast. Got into town early. Sat in town drinking coffee while a rain shower passed through and then headed up to the glacier. Wow. Hiking up to the glacier was an experience I won't soon forget. Definitely worth the trip alone.

We started up to the glacier late in the afternoon just as the rain was clearing. Blue sky and sunshine were mixing with lingering low clouds over the ice. By walking up, the glacier was slowly revealed to us -- always deceivingly close due to its immense size. The colors were amazing: lush green hills, vibrant blue sky, the glaring white ice, the dull grey of the rock field proceeding the glacier, and an unearthly bluish cast on the wet rocky hillside next to the terminal face.

An enormous expanse of rocky plain stretched out in front of the glacier, making you feel impossibly small while you were approaching the glacier face. Sheer rock walls, smoothed by the glacier, jutted out of the valley floor. All that ice, looming up to the face of the glacier --

earth visably plowed up in front of it as if someone had been doing excavating work with huge land movers, and huge boulders, the size of cars, sitting high up on the glacier surface. Wow. An unbelievably incredible experience.

Monday, March 10

Rest day in Franz Josef. Slept in a little later than usual, happy after a week on the road not to be loading up the bikes and cranking on. Chance to rest my weary knees, which were very surprised to have gained 50 odd pounds (in gear weight) over night. We found someone in town with Netscape and zapped off our second batch of text and pictures. Main mission for the day accomplished. Spent a couple of hours trying to get our own machine hooked up to the Net without success. Kept hitting various dead-ends. This is really weird, but wanted to mention that somewhere between Fox Glacier and Franz Josef we changed from "Slippery When FROSTY" to "Slippery When WET." Told you it was weird. But, thought I better mention it. Also, as long as we're jumping around -- the night sky is fantastic here. Because of the absence of human clutter, the stars are incredibly brilliant and unbelievable (for a city boy) in numbers. It is quite a shock when you are used to seeing only a fraction of what is up there.

See the map for these days

	Sunday, March 9
	Fox Glacier to Franz Josef Glacier. Just a short hop up the coast. Got into town early. Sat in town drinking coffee while a rain shower passed through and then headed up to the glacier. Wow. Hiking up to the glacier was an experience I won't soon forget. Definitely worth the trip alone. We started up to the glacier late in the afternoon just as the rain was clearing. Blue sky and sunshine were mixing with lingering low clouds over the ice. By walking up, the glacier was slowly revealed to us -- always deceivingly close due to its immense size. The colors were amazing: lush green hills, vibrant blue sky, the glaring white ice, the dull grey of the rock field proceeding the glacier, and an unearthly bluish cast on the wet rocky hillside next to the terminal face. An enormous expanse of rocky plain stretched out in front of the glacier, making you feel impossibly small while you were approaching the glacier face. Sheer rock walls, smoothed by the glacier, jutted out of the valley floor. All that ice, looming up to the face of the glacier -- earth visably plowed up in front of it as if someone had been doing excavating work with huge land movers, and huge boulders, the size of cars, sitting high up on the glacier surface. Wow. An unbelievably incredible experience.
	Monday, March 10
	Rest day in Franz Josef. Slept in a little later than usual, happy after a week on the road not to be loading up the bikes and cranking on. Chance to rest my weary knees, which were very surprised to have gained 50 odd pounds (in gear weight) over night. We found someone in town with Netscape and zapped off our second batch of text and pictures. Main mission for the day accomplished. Spent a couple of hours trying to get our own machine hooked up to the Net without success. Kept hitting various dead-ends. This is really weird, but wanted to mention that somewhere between Fox Glacier and Franz Josef we changed from "Slippery When FROSTY" to "Slippery When WET." Told you it was weird. But, thought I better mention it. Also, as long as we're jumping around -- the night sky is fantastic here. Because of the absence of human clutter, the stars are incredibly brilliant and unbelievable (for a city boy) in numbers. It is quite a shock when you are used to seeing only a fraction of what is up there. See the map for these days