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Fox Glacier, New Zealand (Aotearoa)
43° 30' S 170° 4' E
Apr 25, 2005 10:41
Distance 0km

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Cornelia, our glacier guide

Text written in: English

Born in Australia to an Australian mother and a New Zealander father, Cornelia has dual citizenship. Her father was a mountain guide on Aoraki Mt. Cook. She's been to Canada and plans to climb Aconcagua in South America.

She's living full time in New Zealand now. She says she decided to leave Australia partly because of her loathing of Australian prime minister John Howard, a conservative who is friendly with the United States despite widespread opposition in Australia to the Iraq War.

I asked her, "So, what's the catch? You have a beautiful country, friendly people, a strong public sector, a dynamic economy, sparkling infrastructure. What's the down side?"

"We do have a bit of a struggle with successive waves of immigrants. Each one is a challenge."

I remembered the incident, reported a week or so before, of the discount store employee who refused the return of some clothing from a Fijian woman because "they smelled like curry." Was it an example of racial bias or an innocent if somewhat ill-chosen phrase?

"But it is a special place," Cornelia continued. "People are realizing that the natural beauty here is a financial asset. Tourism is now our top export earner, so the private sector is keen to preserve the environment."

"What about the helicopter flights that ferry hikers up the moraine so they can walk around on the upper glacier?"

"Every year the local Department of Conservation officials conduct a survey where they gauge attitudes about the impact of things like helicopter noise on people's experience of the glacier."

Right now, it's a compromise. People pay $250 apiece to helicopter onto the glacier. That supports the local economy and probably subsidizes hiking and the other less intrusive methods of access to the glacier.