Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GLACIERS FOR DUMMIES
During the last ice age (15,000 to 20,000 years ago) Westland's twin glaciers reached the sea. In the ensuing thaw
they may have crawled back even further than their current positions, but in the 14th century a mini ice age
caused them to advance to their greatest modern-era extent around 1750, and the terminal moraines from this time
are still visible.
If you get rained in during your time in glacier country, here are a few glacier-geek conversation starters for the
pub.
Ablation zone
Where the glacier melts.
Accumulation zone
Where the ice and snow collects.
Bergschrund
A large
crevasse
in the ice near the glacier's starting point.
Blue ice
As the accumulation zone
(névé)
snow is compressed by subsequent snowfalls, it becomes
firn
and then
blue ice.
Calving
The process of ice breaking away from the glacier terminal face.
Crevasse
A crack in the glacial ice formed as it crosses obstacles while descending.
Firn
Partly compressed snow en route to becoming
blue ice.
Glacial flour
Finely ground rock particles in the milky rivers flowing off glaciers.
Icefall
When a glacier descends so steeply that the upper ice breaks into a jumble of ice blocks.
Kettle lake
A lake formed by the melt of an area of isolated dead ice
.
Moraine
Walls of debris formed at the glacier's sides (
lateral moraine
) or end (
terminal moraine
).
Névé
Snowfield area where
firn
is formed.
Seracs
Ice pinnacles formed, like
crevasses,
by the glacier rolling over obstacles.
Terminal
The final ice face at the bottom of the glacier.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Franz Josef Glacier
The early Maori knew Franz Josef as Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere (Tears of the
Avalanche Girl). Legend tells of a girl losing her lover who fell from the local peaks, and
her flood of tears freezing into the glacier. The glacier was first explored by Europeans in
1865, with Austrian Julius Haast naming it after the Austrian emperor. The glacier car
park is 5km from Franz Josef village; the primary viewpoint is a 40-minute walk from
there.
