We left Lake Hawea and were heading to Franz Josef Glacier. On our way we stopped off at the Blue Pools which was a pretty cool river with glacier water going through. Needless to say it was very cold to touch and was a lovely blue colour. As we were driving along we were flagged down by a lady standing near a truck. Her and her husband were stranded on the side of the road as their key snapped in the ignition barrel. We were the 2nd car they had seen in two hours. They stopped the right people! Oresti got his trusty swiss army knife and got to work. He looked like a pro car thief and after just a couple of minutes took the whole mechanism apart and the truck engine roared into action. Job well done.
The following day....
We've just had an amazing day. It started with a helicopter ride over the Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast of New Zealands South Island. This was our first time ever in a helicopter and we were so excited. The views over the glacier and the surrounding areas were phenomenal and we couldnt stop oohing and ahhing. We were dropped off in the depths of the glacier and after attaching our crampons we were ready to explore. We loved learning about the formation of the glaciers and took loads of pictures of the amazing site. We climbed up, down, and through the maze of ice, eager to put our crampons to the test. There were often steep drops and so we had to follow our guides steps. I saw my life flash before my very eyes as my foot unexpectantly went deep through the floor. I managed to make a dramatic, and possibly theatrical escape, as I saved my own life. Who would have known that the puddle was only 40cm deep?!
We spent about 3 hours walking on the ice and loved every moment of it. We learnt that this is one of the largest glaciers in the world, over 11km long and at times 150m deep. It is also one of the fastest moving, upto 1.5m/day, and is also one of the few glaciers that are present at such low altitude. Proof of the movement of the glacier is seen in the horizontal lines in the ice. These represent different snowfalls frozen in time, but in fact they are now vertical ! So the tumbling over of the ice can almost be imagined! It was fascinating.
The time came to go home, and again we were excited to hop onto our helicopter ride.
To end an already amazing day, we spent the evening at the outdoor thermal hot pools. Just what we needed to unwind and reflect on our once in a lifetime experience.
