A promotional rugby game on the NEVE of the Fox Glacier - Westland National Park, West Coast, New Zealand

By the end of the last year’s winter, we had a lot of fun. With our still photography we were covering an exciting promo project of the Glacier Country in New Zealand – Rugby Match on Fox Glacier Neve. This project offers an opportunity to win NZ$50.000 price package in a Glacier Country Rugby Competition. For details please go to – glaciercountry.co.nz
On this project we worked alongside of a great film maker from Auckland, Tony Burrows of Motion Pacific who was putting together a short promo movie from the match, showcasing an incredible environment we are so fortunate to live in. The aim with this project is to attract attention of all rugby fans, tourists and journalists who will travel to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup and to show them the opportunities and incredible beauty our precious West Coast/Glacier Country has on offer. We all hope here on the West Coast that these rugby fans will take an opportunity to extend their “rugby holidays” and will swing over the hills to the coast to pay us a visit. We look forward to seeing them here.

To see more images, please visit – GLACIER COUNTRY or follow this Facebook link – http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.188350501209683.45001.186662558045144

Fox Glacier under highest peaks in New Zealand - Mt. Tasman 3,497m and Mt Cook 3,754m

When do we call a chunk of ice a glacier? Usually, the ice mass has to be at least 100m x 100m in size and needs to show some signs of a present or past movement.
Generally, glaciers are divided into two main groups – Ice Sheets and Valley Glaciers, each with several sub-types.
Ice Sheets or Continental Glaciers are the largest masses of ice on Earth spreading over 50,000 square kilometres with the depth of ice sometimes more than 4,200m. They are only found in Antarctica and Greenland. Ice Shelves are floating extensions of Ice Sheets and surround most of Antarctica. Ice masses smaller than 50,000km2, with a dome-shaped accumulation of ice and snow completely covering mountainous areas, are called Ice Caps and are found in high elevations of polar and sub-polar regions. Similar but smaller than Ice Caps are Ice Fields which can cover low-relief mountain plateaus providing a source of ice for Mountain or Valley Glaciers. Relatively smaller than its originating ice source are Outlet Glaciers, these are rapidly moving frozen streams flowing out of larger bodies of ice.

The ice flow of a glacier is divided into two types, internal deformation and basal sliding. Internal deformation is movement of parts of the glacier relative to itself. Throughout the descent of the glacier, the ice at the sides and bottom side of the glacier are subject to more friction from the valley floor and walls, and therefore forced to move at a slower rate than the ice in the centre of the glacier. As a result the ice deforms within itself. Basal sliding occurs as water, either rain or melt passes underneath the glacier and acts as a lubricant between the ice and the bedrock. This is the main source of terminal velocity of temperate glaciers.

The bottom layers of the glacier flow deform plastically under the pressure allowing the glacier as a whole to slide down the valley like a huge toffee. It is the upper layer of around 30metres where the glacier is more brittle, therefore the ice here cracks and breaks into crevasses and seracs in order to bend over uneven bedrock.

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