Franz Josef Glacier

When researching Franz Josef Glaciers we found out that the glacier hikes are weather dependent so it is advised to spend a few days in the glaciers area in case our prebooked glacier hike was cancelled. We arrived in the evening to Franz Josef village and the sun was shining so we were hopeful that the following day would be the same and our glacier hike would go ahead. That evening we walked along the valley floor to a view point of the bottom of Franz Glacier. Along the walking trail there were signs informing us of where the glacier used to decend down the mountain to. In the last 150 years the glacier has retreated at a much quicker pace than the previous 1,000 years due to the use of engined machinery and climate change. It was mad how far the glacier has retreated in such a short period of time. We got a lovely view of the Franz Josef glacier just as the sun was setting, this made us more excited about the glacier hike the following day.

However when we woke up the following morning it was raining and we heard that all of the glacier hikes were postponed for the day. We decided to go to another glacier, Fox Glacier, which was located thirty minutes away on the other side of the mountain. Similar to Franz Josef we walked the valley walk to the base of Fox Glacier, this is a larger glacier than Franz Josef Glacier and it decends further down the mountain so we could see more of the glacier from the valley below. Just as we arrived at the glacier the rain stopped so we got some very nice photos there. After lunch we walked through the rainforest around Lake Matheson. On a dry clear day there is supposed to be a stunning reflection of the glacier on the lake surface however due to the rain the reflection was not present. It was a peaceful walk nevertheless.

That evening after all our walking we decided to treat ourselves to hot baths. We spent an hour relaxing in 37 degree water, it was great.

The following morning we woke to the sound of helicopters flying overhead. We got excited that our tour would go ahead today. When we arrived at the tour base we had to fill in a health and safety form and then were gave boots, waterproof jacket and trousers and gloves. There was ten people in our group and it turned out that eight were Irish, we all laughed about how you can't go anywhere without meeting some Irish. The helicopter flight to the glacier took five minutes and there was a stunning view of the glacier below. Once we landed on the ice we put crampton spikes onto our boots and met our guide Laurence. Laurence brought us up through the glacier through cravasses in the ice. We learned about how glaciers were formed and also how the Maori believe that the glacier was formed by their demi-god sheading frozen tears for her lost lover. The most spectacular part of the hike was when we got to walk through blue ice. Blue ice is compacted ice that has no air in it therefore light can not be dispersed as it goes through the ice giving a blue colour. It looked so pretty. The hike was three hours long so was quite tiring but was worth every minute of it. I think that this adventure is going to be one of the highlights of the whole trip.Read more