On Franz Josef Glacier

by Joan Carroll

Title

On Franz Josef Glacier

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Photography And Digital Art

Description

Over the years, I have devoured many of the books on Arctic and Antarctic exploration and always tried to picture what it was like for the early explorers to have to navigate the icefields that they would encounter. They would recount wonderful days when they could ski (Amundsen from Norway) or trudge (Scott from England) over smooth fields of hard-packed snow, and woeful days when they would encounter ice falls and wonder how they could easily get around them. Walking over some of the admittedly groomed paths of the Franz Josef glacier on the west side of the South Island of New Zealand made me appreciate the absolute horror and dismay these explorers must have felt moving dogs, sleds, and supplies over terrain such as this! As for us, we landed towards the base of the glacier via helicopter and had no such worries during our several hours of guided exploration over the glacier. Franz Josef Glacier is a 12 km (7.5 mi) long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. Together with the Fox Glacier 20 km (12 mi) to the south, and a third glacier, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level and thus is accessible for tourism. The Māori name for the glacier is Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere ('The tears of Hine Hukatere’) and following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the glacier was officially altered to Franz Josef Glacier / Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere. One of the Act's provisions covered the use of dual (Māori and English) names for geographical locations in the Ngāi Tahu (principal Māori iwi (tribe) of the southern region of New Zealand) tribal area.

FEATURED PHOTO, Monthly Themed - January -ice group, 2/1/19

FEATURED PHOTO, Country Mountains Desert And Sea group, 1/1/18

FEATURED PHOTO, ART - It Is Good For You group, 12/30/17

FEATURED PHOTO, Comment for Comment - CFC group, 12/30/17

Joan carroll, crevasse, ice, winter, scenic, rocky, rock, outdoor, tourism, white, wild, wilderness, tourist, trek, trekking, nature, natural, extreme, frozen, blue, glacial, landscape, mountain, landmark

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December 29th, 2017

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