During our visit to Fox Glacier and Franz Joseph Glacier in NZ we encountered these signs and warnings about the instability of the terminal end of the glaciers and flooding caused by melting and recent rains. One could only enter such areas with a licensed glacier guide. Although we observed numerous tourists passing through the barrier without guides our NZ guide would not enter because he was not licensed for glacier guiding.Tragically a few days later two Australian brothers in their 20's visiting NZ with their parents bypassed the barriers and were killed in a glacier collapse at the terminal end of Fox Glacier. One was recovered 6 miles downstream from the glacier.
In an absurd bit of bureaucratic buffoonery their rental car company manager billed the men's parents $990 for the set of rental car keys lost with one of the brothers. Hopefully he did not recover any dignity when he later retracted the billing.
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