THRILLS ON FRANZ JOSEF

Hokitika Guardian, 28 November 1930, Page 7

THRILLS ON FRANZ JOSEF

GLACIER BEAUTIES. WHERE Tip YEARS DROP AWAY. (By FLORENCE-.- AI. NICHOLLS in Chritsr-hurck Times). “Well,” she said as she stood in tile doorway of the hut at the foot of tli^, glacier, “J have come two thousand miles to see this and it is worth it.” She looked a comical enough figure in' her tight grey sweater, short i “hired” socks, and enormous hob"fc nailed hoots, wet through, but oozing contentment. v “So you enjoyed it”? I askecl. “Enjoyed it! I should think I did,” she ejaculated. “Every minute of it. I have realised the dream of my life. It’s the first time I have seen snow and iee.jv V have been waiting forty years for this.” “Never seen snow before! Whence come you p” “From Tasmania, dearie, and it’s been my ambition for forty years to 6ee snow.” ' “I am glad we came up to expectations,” I said politely on behalf of the mountains, since their dignity would not allow them to bow their thanks. \ She wayedl an excited “good-bye” mounted “steed” which she and her male companion were sharing, rids and tie, for the three miles of bush v track back to the hotel. That thrilled her too. She thought it “just wonderful” to ride “on horseback.”

WHILE THE BILLY BOILED. Soon the remainder of the party arrived, soaking wet but enthusiastic. The guides made a log fire and pm, the billy on. An educated Japanese was standing a. little apart from tiie others. “How do you like this sort of thing?” I asked. “Oh, I enjoy thus very modi,” lie answered, smiling happily.

“All these people seem to he much more ‘game’ than I am,” I thought “I must confess that to be wet through to the skin, with cold shoulders and a lake in each boot in not my idea of enjoyment.” However, after another day of rain the weather cleared. There was a rift in the clouds and Elle de Beaumont came coyly out of her mists for about five minutes. Everyone made a rush for cameras, but one snap was all she would allow that day.

Gracefully, hut cpiite definitely, she drew her grew veils about her and said “Perhaps to-morrow.” “Toinorow” dawned bright and warm and we set off' for the glacier under perfect conditions. I followed the Tasmanian enthusiast’s example and rode “Cora” as far as the hut. It was a delightful ride through hush and ferns and over chattering streamlets.

“There was wide wandering for the greediest eye, To peer about upon variety.”

1 felt that my “greediest eye” could “peer about upon variety” more comfortably when Cora bore the weight of the hob-nailed boots, and certainly it was a most successful arrangement. One could relax completely.

“And watch intently Nature’s gentle doings”

the while /mo’s energy was being stored for the climb. We had luncheon (sandwiches and hilly tea) at the lint, then crossed the river-bed and moraine —there is not a great deal of moraine at the Franz Josef—and so on to the glacier. MINUS 'TEN YEARS.

What a wonderfully exhilarating experienee it is! One suddenly drops t'ii years. They roll away amongst f’e boulders and lie in wait there until one leaves the enchanted land of i :e. But they hop on again just as one starts to go jauntily down that slope of moraine. “Mind—there is ice under those boulders.” Too late, cue has slipped twelve yards or so and, on rising in an attitude made famous by “Doans,” finds oneself plus those ten vonrs.

The glacier itself is intensely interesting. It is composed of iee crystals which, especially in wet weather, nrp iridescent. The lmue crevasses and the ice caves are a. delicate blueygreen. If one can find a few kindred spirits who do not wish to rush ahead apparently trying to break all previous speed records, and a guide who is willing to “show off” the glacier to its best advantage, one discovers a thousand beauties; beautiful blue lakes so deep that ho one has yet fathomed them; fissures where, if one stops to listen, streams can be heard miles below the glacier in full musical sounds of water flowing at clrent depths) ; then almost every turn brings a new and wonderful view. I liked the view we had whilst returning; Lake Mapourika in the distance and, beyonu her, range upon range of bush-clau hills, each range becoming more hazy until the seventh was almost like a cloud in the distance.

THRILLS GALORE. • The glacier also provides thrills enough for the most blase.sightseer—many a manly heart loses a beat on the “razor-backs.” These are pinnacles of ice over which one has to walk for about 16 feet. The guide knocks the top off with his ice axe until there is a track about six inches wide. On either side there is a crevasse which so far as one can see, is bottomless! Of our party the shingled sex, nothing daunted, negotiated two of these razor-hacks quite successfully, both going and coming. Some of the men turned back when they saw what they had to cross, but I suppose they would have been ashamed to hold the guide’s hand. For my part, I held fast to it and kept my eyes “glued” to his boots. Once I allowed my glance to stray to the right, but one glimpse of that awful chasm moving slowly past was more than enough. Until we reached “glades firnxa” a pair of homely black boots contended me for scenery. We approached the ioe pinnacles like a row of insignificant little flies on Natures marvellous handiwork; acres and acres of white grandeur all around and, towering above us, those huge blue and white pinnacles of ice.

A SAVIFT MOVING GLACIER. The Franz Josef is much more rough and rugged than the Tasman, arid has the added beauty of bush surrounding the lower reaches. This is accounted for by the fact that the Franz Josef is the lowest glacier in the world, being only 750 feet above the sea level. The sudden drop from the immense snow-fields causes it to flow much more quickly than most glaciers. In parts the Franz Josef moves fifteen feet a day whereas the Tasman moves about eighteen inches. ? ' It seems that experts 1 differ jin their opinions with regard to the flow of glaciers, some asserting that the upper strata flow more quickly than the lower ones, while others claim that the lower Strata move inoi'e quickly. In any case, the action of the vftHpils Strata pushes shingle arid silt from the liver bed below right up through the glacier, and one frequently comee upon piles of stones, which look as though they had been blasted from a quarry, not a rounded one amongst them.