Overnight we stayed in a backpackers in in Franz Josef. We had a refresh start, and was packed up, fed breakfast, and on our way to our HeliHike by 7 am. Quite early.
We got to the summit of Fox Glacier at 7:30, and 18 of us were on our way to the HeliHike on the glacier by 7:45. This tour included at 15 minute helicopter ride viewing the Fox Glacier (which is still actively growing) and we got dropped off at a midpoint, and were ready to hike up the glacier.
It was amazing. The views were spectacular. Around the Fox Glacier there is jungle, then just a massive amount of ice flowing down into the valley. It's unbelievable.
We hiked up 100 meters higher above sea level than where we landed, we walked into ice caves, drank glacier water, saw streams of ice and water flow, and learned a thing or two about glaciers. First, Fox is a young glacier. The ice at the summit is only about 100 years old, most summits have ice that is 1000s of years old. Fox grows about 7 cm a day, and rises and falls in length. There are many birds of prey that fly around however, there is hardly any life on the glacier.
Today was just another stunningly beautiful day. After we finished the hike, we hiked back down to the helicopter point, and were picked up. Our experience was about 4 hours of beauty.
Next stop was to Queenstown. The route we took was gorgeous and very scenic. THe south island is defiantly prettier than the north island of New Zealand. However, the north island still beats most places in the world.
Tonight we took a gondola ride up, and had dinner up on the sky tower of Queenstown. One, it was great view, two it was an all you can eat buffet of grommet foods. It does not get better than that.
We hit up the town in style after dinner. However, tomorrow will be a long day of fun activities, so I was one of the early returners to the hotels.
Maybe some jumping out of things tomorrow, and i sense some water rapids approaching... more on that in tomorrow's post though. :)
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Uploaded and sent from an iPad that's exploring New Zealand. Please try not to mind the typos and spelling errors. Autocorrect does some funny things.
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