Franz Josef
On the way to Franz Josef we stopped in Hokitika for breakfast. A bit later we stopped again in Ross a gold mining town established during the gold rush of the 1880s. We had a demonstration of panning for gold - you had to have a lot of patience so I decided not to give it a go. One guy on the bus tried and ended up with quite a few specks - they put it into a tube for you and you get to keep it. For lunch I tried Possum pie - it's wierd because in Australia they are a protected animals but everyone in New Zealand hates them because they are not native and eat huge areas of forest. You can also buy lots of Possum fur items.
We arrived at Franz Josef and checked into our hostel - Chateau Franz - yet again it was really nice place surrounded by mountains.
I had originally planned to do the full day glacier hike but was persuaded to do the Heli-hike. It was a gorgeous afternoon so I headed out there and then.
If any of you are thinking - "What is a glacier?" well....
Glaciers are more or less permanent bodies of ice and compacted snow that have become deep enough and heavy enough to flow under their own weight. The Franz Josef is a glacier located in Westland National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. The glacier is currently 12 kilometres long and the flow rate is about 10 times that of typical glaciers
The hike was one of the best things I've done on the trip so far. First we got kitted out with jackets, gloves, boots and spikes then headed up to the glacier by Helicopter. I absolutely loved the ride as we shot over the glacier - the pilot gave a comentary on all we were seeing - he also did some crazy turns which some people hated but I absolutely loved. As you can see I managed to get some great shots from the helicopter.
We landed high up in the middle of the glacier where we met our hiking guide.
We fitted our spikes and followed the guide around a pre-carved trail. The ice landscape was absolutely incredible. There was quite a lot of photo stops as we walked around for a few hours - we saw blue ice and ice caves.
We had to crawl through some really narrow gaps and our last challenge was to crawl through an ice tunnel.
Unfortunately I got stuck behind some idiot who knew he was claustrophobic but went into the tunnel anyway and freaked out so the guide had to pull him out.
When we looped back to the start point we were collected by the helicopter and flown down back to town - I'd definately recommend this trip to anyone.
Next day I decided to take it easy - the weather was terrible and I was so glad I had changed my mind and not booked the full day hike! We found some Premiership football on TV and watched the film Anchor Man which was pretty funny.
We headed out that night - one of the guides was leaving so there was quite a few people out. We left the first pub and had just arrived at the second at 9.30 when the barmaid called time - unfortunately for her the big crowd from the first pub all turned up and she had to stay open.
Early next morning we headed off towards Queenstown.
We arrived at Franz Josef and checked into our hostel - Chateau Franz - yet again it was really nice place surrounded by mountains.
I had originally planned to do the full day glacier hike but was persuaded to do the Heli-hike. It was a gorgeous afternoon so I headed out there and then.
If any of you are thinking - "What is a glacier?" well....
Glaciers are more or less permanent bodies of ice and compacted snow that have become deep enough and heavy enough to flow under their own weight. The Franz Josef is a glacier located in Westland National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. The glacier is currently 12 kilometres long and the flow rate is about 10 times that of typical glaciers
The hike was one of the best things I've done on the trip so far. First we got kitted out with jackets, gloves, boots and spikes then headed up to the glacier by Helicopter. I absolutely loved the ride as we shot over the glacier - the pilot gave a comentary on all we were seeing - he also did some crazy turns which some people hated but I absolutely loved. As you can see I managed to get some great shots from the helicopter.
We landed high up in the middle of the glacier where we met our hiking guide.
We fitted our spikes and followed the guide around a pre-carved trail. The ice landscape was absolutely incredible. There was quite a lot of photo stops as we walked around for a few hours - we saw blue ice and ice caves.
We had to crawl through some really narrow gaps and our last challenge was to crawl through an ice tunnel.
Unfortunately I got stuck behind some idiot who knew he was claustrophobic but went into the tunnel anyway and freaked out so the guide had to pull him out.
When we looped back to the start point we were collected by the helicopter and flown down back to town - I'd definately recommend this trip to anyone.
Next day I decided to take it easy - the weather was terrible and I was so glad I had changed my mind and not booked the full day hike! We found some Premiership football on TV and watched the film Anchor Man which was pretty funny.
We headed out that night - one of the guides was leaving so there was quite a few people out. We left the first pub and had just arrived at the second at 9.30 when the barmaid called time - unfortunately for her the big crowd from the first pub all turned up and she had to stay open.
Early next morning we headed off towards Queenstown.
posted by Phil at 5:19 AM
1 Comments:
Booo - no pic of the 'bum bag'! The helicopter ride sounds great - really envious - will have to look into doing one together in Oz. Jen x
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