It was an easy 30km to Fox on a still overcast morning through open countryside. The low cloud denied us sight of the peaks then a gap opened for a few seconds for a tantalising glimpse of the glacier. After last night’s experience we considered staying at a motel and looked in on the Matheson but the beds were on the soft side. For $80 you got your own kitchen, tv and en-suite bathroom but then we’d miss out on the social life of the kitchen. As we walked out we saw Ivo cycling towards us from the Fox Glacier Motor Camp – he told us it was a good place to stay so we booked a $35 cabin for two nights. For an extra $5 per night we hired linen and towels, giving us the luxury of a night unconstrained by sleeping bags.
After lunch we caught up on our washing and postcards, educated ourselves at the information centre and bought food to last us the two days. Rain fell midway through the afternoon, becoming very heavy and lasting all evening. This confined us to our cabin, where we finally started reading the novels we’d been carrying around all holiday.