The Fox

hey hey hey ........... im in Queenstown!

Finally, we've left Hoky! We headed south a few days back now - visiting the glaciers en ruite, ie Franz Joseph and The Fox.

Franz Joseph was cool but the Fox was awesome! We paddled the river from right under the glacier (not entirely sure how legal this was - but noone complained!). This was amazing. The river itself wasnt too challenging but the fact it was coming directly from a huge ice-structure added a whole new dimension:
1 - Being entirely ice-melt it was FREEZING!!; it actually stung to get water on the skin. Swimming was not really an option as even a capsize was potentially serious.
2 - Visibility was awful - ie - the water was a merky white-ish colour (rather than the traditional 'blue' that God usually goes with) this, unfortunatly, making the river hard to scout; lines were not always obvious and stoppers were hard to spot.
3 - Last, but certainly not least - Ice. Sooo, so much ice. It was crazy to be paddling down a river with these huge chunks of frozen water! At the top they were worst (biggest); big enough to make features of their own - eddies, pour-overs and the like. Further down the shank to the size of large footballs, then, towards the end, to about the size of a fist.
The trip was a total success with no problems. Doni was the only one to capsize. This really was the funniest thing ever. He rolled up with what must have been the worst ice-cream head in history! I've never heard so many German swear words!
It was absolutely fantastic, one of my favourite rivers - just due to the experience factor more than anything else.

Oh yeah, we're onto our THIRD car now; 'the Lunchbox' blew-up after only a couple of hundred km's ...... now we have a red 'Nissan ?Something?' - its pretty cool:- '92 and pretty damn quick!!!For the third time ..... $500, super! We've named it "the Red Barron" - due to its cool tough awesome-ness.