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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 1 (May 1, 1929)

Sensations on the Ice

Sensations on the Ice.

To see the glacier from the plain and the heights, however, is not enough. One must go upon the ice, spend whole days upon the glacier itself in ascending and descending it, to experience a variety of sensations which are new to most. The easy but unforgetable walk of three miles along the well-formed track through the virgin forest and beside the rushing Waiho River up to the face of the glacier; the immortal notes of the tuis and bellbirds; the reflections in Peter's Pool; the thrills in excelsis of crossing genuine ice razor-backs under the direction of experienced guides, who cut nice steps across; the joy of getting on the white honeycombed ice; the passing through bewildering mazes of crevasses and ice-falls out of which it seems ever impossible to emerge, but through which the guides readily find their way under the magic touch of the ice-axe; the fascination of the blow-hole, going deep down, up which surging waters gurgle and the glacier seems actually to breathe; the introduction to one's first moulins (of which there are scores), round holes in the ice which go down to mysterious depths, getting bluer and bluer as they descend, and into which sparkling rills, clearer than crystal, tumble in riotous glee; the music of running water on the melting ice, and of streams, cataracts, and high waterfalls (the Unser Fritz waterfall, above Cape Defiance, is no less than 1,209 feet high), cascading in feathery foam down the mountain sides; the distant boom of avalanches—these are some of the delights to be met with in the popular journey up to Defiance Hut (2,657 feet), two and a-half miles up the glacier.

Road Approach to Franz Josef. The Main South Road of the West Coast.

Road Approach to Franz Josef.
The Main South Road of the West Coast.