New Zealand - Day 4 (Fox Glacier - Lake Matheson - Queenstown)

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Fox Glacier Lodge is a great place to stay. Breakfast is included in the room rate and the owner prepared freshly home made bread, variety of fruit jams, fresh fruits, milk and fruit juice for us. We packed our things, left Fox Glacier Lodge around 10am and headed off to our first destination of the day which was Lake Matheson.
 
Lake Matheson takes its name from Murdoch Matheson who ran cattle on these Cook River Flats in the 1870s, and opened a store and butchers shops 15km away at Gillespie's Beach to service the mass of gold seekers. The Lake Matheson walk is part of Westland Tai Poudini National Park and Te Wahipounamu (place of greenstone) South West New Zealand World Heritage Area. Down and dusk are often the best times to view the lake's reflection, before the wind or cloud blurs the image. A stunning walk through a rich portion of South Westland's ancient rainforest and around Lake Matheson.
 
We wandered around Lake Matheson for one and a half hour, enjoying the beautiful scenery before proceed to Fox Glacier. We wanted to take a helicopter flight but the weather condition was not optimal for a tour. Ended up we took a short walk at Fox Glacier without taking any tour package. We had fried rice for our lunch - thanks to our Aunty who woke up early in the morning to prepare the lunch for all of us. While we were in Fox Glacier, we saw the breathtaking glacier and also rainbows in between the mountains.
 
So, what exactly is a glacier? A glacier is a moving mass of ice, travelling down a valley 100,000 times slower than a river. It must have a huge basin to collect snow at the top, which must stay at freezing temperatures for many years. Ice moves by sliding over the underlying rocks on a film of water and by plastic flow within the glacier itself. The top layer, about 20 metres rides along as a brittle crust, splitting into gaps where the glaciers flows over humps and drag at valley walls. Huge steps in the bedrock will cause a corresponding effect at the surface. Blocks of ices project skywards before tumbling into chaotic icefalls.
 
We spend 2 hours at the glacier before we made our way to Queenstown. We had our late dinner around 8.30pm in Winnie's pizza. This restaurant was recommended by tripadvisor and the pizza was delicious. It was cheesy, full of flavours and the pizza dough was just right. We were so hungry when the pizza arrived and none of us took any photos of the pizza. We stayed in Novotel Queenstown for 2 nights. Stay tuned for my next Queenstown's blog.


 
Lake Matheson
 
 
Lake Matheson
 
 
South Westland's ancient rainforest
 
 
Lake Matheson walk
 
 
Lake Matheson walk
 
 
Fox Glacier
 
 
Not worth the risk
 
 
We saw rainbow in between the mountains
 

Unique rocks at Fox Glacier


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