After breakfast we drove down to Lake Matheson and walked around the lake to the jetty which offers great views back across the lake to Mt Cook. The reflections off the lake on this still morning were very picturesque. It was a short walk through rainforest around to the jetty along a well constructed gravel path. Then we had a coffee at the cafe whilst enjoying the magnificent views back across to the mountains.
Fox Glacier was our next stop. We parked in the lower car park and crossed a suspension bridge over the river before walking along a dirt path and across a creek or two to views through a window on the tree canopy back to the glacier.
Back in the car and off to the main car park where we walked up to the glacier look out which is 450 metres from the the glacier terminal. It was a very barren walk through river bed and up rock paths.
We moved away from the Fox and up to Frans Josef where we stopped in town for lunch watching the helicopters set off up the mountain. The walk after lunch at Frans was a lot more interesting than that of the Fox. You start off walking through rainforest before coming down onto the river bed and then continues on along the edge of the river until you reach the terminal face. Along the way you pass numerous waterfalls coming off the edge of the rock escarpments.
On the way back down we noticed a large iceberg that had obviously bee sitting in situ for some time. There were some people heading over for a look but we chose to stay behind the ropes.
Then we drove along the coast before heading to Lake Kaniere to camp in a DOC campsite for the night. The campsites were large open spaces and have well maintained flush toilets, fresh water and bins right next to the boat club for $18 for the night.
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