Epic New Zealand Road Trip - Glacier Hike

Saturday Feb 9^th

We got up early to drive to Franz Josef for a glacier heli-hike. Before taking off, we walked to the beach behind the Airbnb to see it in the early morning.

We got to Franz Josef Glacier early enough to be able to switch to the earlier time slot because the departure for our scheduled time slot was pending due to weather. I was glad we already stopped for pastry and coffee in Hokitika and we were able to give an affirmative yes when asked if we were ready to go.

We got our own helicopter with just the three of us and the guide as passengers. I got to sit in front on the way there and was able to take a few nice pictures from the air. We were in a group with six others who were in another helicopter. We put on crampons once the helicopter dropped us off on the glacier and waited for groups that came before us to leave before we followed our guide on the ice. Our guide carried an ice axe to clear the ice and make way for us. When the slope is steep, he’d make a staircase as a path. At one point, we could choose to slide down the ice. When he said the glacier water was safe to drink, Liên and I tried it and we were the only ones who did. Near the end of our hike, dark clouds approached and we had to be on the move to get back to the landing to be evacuated out by helicopters. We had lunch before soaking ourselves in the Franz Josef Glacier Hot Pools. 

After the hot pools, we went in search of glow worms by taking the Tatare Tunnels, created in 1897 to bring water from the Tatare River to sluice the gold laden terraces of the Waiho River. You have to be willing to get your feet wet to traverse the tunnel, but we didn’t know that at first. We were very careful walking slowly on rocks and avoiding the water. That was futile. We made it through the other side of the tunnel. That was our second sighting of glow worms.

We changed from wet shoes to dry flip flops and drove to Fox Glacier where we’d spend the night. We followed a map to drive to Peak View Point to see Fox Glacier. The map wasn’t to scale and we concentrated so hard on making sure we were in the right direction that we totally missed seeing the Fox Glacier as we drove by its view that was in the open and not obstructed by trees for quite a while. We did see a group of people stopping on the road to take pictures and we laughed that they were taking pictures of cows. Later we figured they must have been taking pictures of the glacier!

After viewing the glacier at Peak View Point, we drove back toward town and could see the glacier in glorious display on our right. We stopped at Lake Matheson and decided to eat dinner before exploring. Liên and I shared a lamb and a gnocchi. Debbie had a steak. We all shared a panna cotta for dessert. The food was delicious. We walked around Lake Matheson. Our favorite spot was Reflection Island. On the way back, we caught the sight of sunset on the open meadow.

When it was dark, we went out and took the Minnehaha Walk to see the glowworms. Debbie and I linked arms because we didn’t want to separate from each other in the dark. Liên went ahead of us and would stop and wait for us when she spotted a good sight with many glow worms. This was our third glow worm walk.

It was a beautiful day. As it was my birthday back home today, my grandson sent me a birthday greeting. A special day, indeed.