These glaciers are big tourist attractions being very close to the main highway and relatively easy to see.
As we arrived at the car park for the Fox Glacier the weather was deteriorating but we decided to continue up the track to the viewing point anyway. In spite of the weather there were a number of, mainly Chinese, coach parties also there.
When I saw the glacier finally I felt the way I do when I see a wild animal in a cage; that I'm looking at something shameful and wrong, even obscene. Here was this phenomenon, in its natural state having an awful power and beauty but here reduced, tamed, dejected, sad and dirty.
As we looked at what can be seen of the terminal face of the shrinking glacier, and watched it submitting to having parties of tourists led across its sooty surface, the rain began to fall heavily. We turned away and hurried back down the track as fast as we could go, resisting shoving Chinese tourists wearing identical jackets and dawdling along, arm in arm, under umbrellas, out of our way. By the time we reached the van we were soaked and Lawson was bemoaning the fact he hadn't been wearing shorts, because, he said, skin is waterproof and dries faster.
The next morning we went to the Franz Josef glacier in sunshine but the story of the disappearing glacier was still a sad one.
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