There aren’t many towns on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. The two “major” ones – each inhabited by less than 400 people – are Fox Glacier and Franz Josef, both popular for the glaciers that reach out from the cold peaks of the Southern Alps down to the rainforest where they terminate at an altitude of less than 300m above sea level. Both glaciers have been retreating rapidly for a couple of years now.

I had arrived at Franz Josef the day before after a two-day hike and then a drive by car from the end of that track northwards to this town. In the morning, I drove to the parking at the valley entrance. From there, it is an easy walk towards the glacier. On both sides of the valley, the steep mountain walls, carved by the glaciers over thousands of years, are covered with trees while you are walking over a grey plain littered with rocks. What I believe makes this place so special, are the contrasts – between the grey of the rocks, the green of the trees and the blue of the sky, between the cold ice and the temperate rainforest.

The photograph was made with a Canon EOS 6D and an EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM lens. The exposure was 1/125 second at f/8 and ISO 200. The photograph was edited in Adobe Lightroom. You can find all of these photos along with others from this journey across New Zealand’s South Island in my album New Zealand 2013 or on Flickr.