After our relaxing, if not unplanned, evening in Murchison, we were on our way to Franz Josef. Unfortunately, we did not get to see The Punakaiki Pancake Rocks because of our delay. You always have to leave something to come back to.
Our stay at the Rainforest Retreat began with a pool tournament vs. the Kiwi Experience bus. I was out after a couple of rounds, but that didn't stop me from checking out the local cider collection.
The next day, I was off with the 4 Irishwomen for our HeliTour of the Franz Josef Glacier. Franz Josef is a 12 km long glacier in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. You used to be able to hike right up the glacier, but since April 2012, the glacier has receded so much that is too dangerous to hike up. 'Unfortunately', this meant we had to take a helicopter. The helicopter gave us a tour of the Glacier Valley, even almost flipping us upside down at one point. I was lucky enough to get a front row seat. We hiked around with our guide Will and even squeezed ourselves through a few crevasses without tripping over our own crampons. The highlight of the trip was spotting Donkey, another guide, who I had heard about earlier in the trip because of his hotness. He was also notorious for a YouTube video in which he..... Well, just look it up. We were very excited about this celebrity sighting, but didn't really get close enough to get the full Donkey experience. The four Irishwomen were most disappointed.
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| Lindsey, Catrina, Nora and Grainne |
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| First view of the Franz Josef Glacier |
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| The icefall |
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| Looking like a true mountaineer |
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| Making our way through a small crevasse |
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| "I'm a moutain goat!" |
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| You want me to crawl through this? |
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| Getting ready to crawl down the hole |
After a day of tramping over, under and through the glacier, it was time to hit the Franz Josef Hot Springs. The pools range in temperature from 36 degrees to 40 degrees. It was great for working out the kinks and knots created while remembering how to walk over snow and ice.
That night, it was limbo contest time. Again, I was done after a few rounds, but that did not deter me from partaking in alcoholic beverages. Enough, that Scott, Jenay and I convinced ourselves that it would be a great idea to go skydiving over the glacier. This of course meant that we had to drink even more to keep our courage up. Unluckily, or luckily depending on your persective, it was way too cloudy for the plane to go up. We once again climbed on the bus and made our way south through the mountains towards Wanaka. On our way, we stopped at Fox Glacier, which has receded so much that you can barely see it from the viewpoint. It is at places like this that you can truly see the effect of Global Warming.
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| Fox Glacier |
