World New Zealand Franz Josef Glacier

Ryans around the world 08/09

Franz Josef Glacier Jan 14, 2009

We left Wanaka the next morning and took a really scenic route (is there anything else here?) along Lake Wanaka, through Mount Aspiring National Park, over to the coast (the Tasman Sea) via Haast, to head towards the Glaciers. We stopped for breakfast on the way across, by a forest that signposted a 10 minute walk down to Roaring Billy, a scenic waterfall. Martin stayed behind to get breakfast ready, and enjoy a pot of coffee in peace, and the girls and I marched off to explore. What a beautiful little wood – it was temperate rainforest here, the trees were beautiful, and the sounds of birds and insects were wonderful. It was a lovely spot – a vast dry grey pebble river bed, with a fast flowing river far over near the other bank, and Roaring Billy splashing down (not quite roaring…). The girls wanted to throw stones into the river, so after having carried them both over the stones, they had fun throwing. I then realised we were getting bitten to bits by the sand flies. And we seemed miles from the van. Oops. Trauma. I ran most of the way back trying to carry them both – certainly earned my breakfast!

There are no problems with mosquitoes here, but the sand flies can be really nasty. Luckily for the rest of the family, they seem to love the taste of me best, and tend to leave everyone else alone. Martin thinks I’m paranoid, but I smother the girls and me in insect repellent all the time, morning, noon and night.

We finally reached Fox Glacier. We could see it in the distance, so parked at the car park and walked 30 minutes up to the closest point possible. I had hoped we could touch it, but the barrier preventing us going any nearer was at least 200 metres away from the ice. An awesome sight though. Until last week the barrier had been quite a bit closer to the glacier, but two 25 year old lads jumped the barrier to get a picture of themselves touching the ice, when a slab broke off above them and crushed them both to death. We could see the area of fresh tumbled ice to the right of the glacier – a sobering sight.

On the way up we had to cross a stream rushing down the hill by jumping across stepping stones – good fun as we nearly dipped both girls in!

As we had driven up the road to the car park, there were marker points showing where the glacier had been in 1750 (3 km nearer the sea), and 1935 (1 km nearer the sea). Interestingly in the 1980’s both Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers grew by over a kilometre towards the sea. Both of the glaciers are about 13km long, and are unique in that they descend from regions of perpetual snow to rainforest close to the coast. They move about 1.5 metres a day.

We drove on to the township of Franz Josef to stay the night. It was just one street with loads of tourist places selling helicopter flights, hikes on the glaciers, quad biking etc – but Franz Josef Glacier was right above you and dominated the view. Amazing. We found a campsite and then went out for a wander. We had a quick snack at a cafe and the girls were being a bit noisy so Martin called out 'girls!!' loudly. 3 ladies were having a drink and they all looked round...lots of laughs as they obviously weren't 'girls'. Photos attached...

How about a helicopter flight? Why not! And off we went!

The 30 minute flight headed up over Franz Josef Glacier first, then over the top where both glaciers join, with a view of Mount Cook peaking between the two, then down over Fox Glacier. Incredible scenery which I would love to have enjoyed but the girls were so excited that they were jabbering about everything (then fiddling with the headphones to be heard), tugging at me the whole time that it was hard to keep an eye on the view. Rosie’s face was a picture though when we took off! We landed at the top of Franz Josef Glacier to take a few pictures and had a snow ball fight. Surreal! What another brilliant experience.

The more things we see and do, the more we can’t wait until the girls are older (but still want to holiday with us!). Their age and abilities have limited us in so many things that we would have loved to have done, so maybe we will all come back one day to hike out into the wilderness a bit more. Until then the organised tours, the heli rides, the jet boats, will have to do!