On Friday 2nd April, we drove from Wanaka to Franz Josef
Glacier. It was a long, long drive over very steep and
twisty roads and through temperate rain forest. Well,
the rain was not temperate. It was most intemperate and
chucked it down all morning. We drove at 20 kph and still
could not see through the windscreen. But we got there
after 5 hours and by the time we got to the coast it finally
stopped.
The view from our B&B was brilliant - snow capped
peaks!
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| The next day was bright and clear and we were
able to go on our long-planned helicopter ride to see Mount
Cook and the Tasman Glacier. The views were beyond description...The
pilot flew carefully to let us take photos and to see the
views. |
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| Eventually, we flew over the Tasman Glacier.
It was huge - we flew over other helicopters and their passengers:
they were just dots on the sparkling white expanse. |
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And then we landed on the
glacier ourselves. |
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Time to go, and this time
the pilot whizzed up and away, banking the helicopter so
we could see the crevasses below... |
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...and skimming over ridges,
missing them by millimetres. Geoff was not happy... |
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| ...but soon (but not soon enough for Geoff!)
Franz Josef was back in sight and we landed safely. |
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| That afternoon, we explored Franz Josef glacier
on foot. We walked up the valley as far as we could without
climbing boots. It was a LONG valley... |
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..with extrodinary wildlife!
(No, we didn't see one.) |
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The next day, we walked down
to the coast, with its curious grey sand and pebbles. |
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