Glacier country

Franz Josef

Fox glacier river bed

After spending 3 nights on the west coast our next stop was Franz Josef. Where, unbelievably on a South Pacific Island only a few kilometres in from the sea and at 300m above sea level there are several glaciers. Franz Josef is the first one we come across on our route south. It measures about 12km in length and can be seen from the car park at ground level. The day we arrived it was very cloudy and the top was not visible entirely.
We parked the camper and along with many other people walked for about 20 minutes along paths and the glacial river bed to get a better view, and as we did so, the clouds cleared and we were able to see the 'blue ice' at the top. Many visitors had taken helicopter trips to view the glacier from above, or hired guides to walk either up or down it. We are used to skiing on glaciers in europe, but this somehow, was different. Quite surreal. We spent 2 nights here, all the while trying to coax Hugo into doing a helicopter trip. Nothing would budge his refusal. For some reason on this trip, Hugo has become much more cautious than ever before. An example of this was on a visit to the Kiwi centre in FJ. The kiwi bird is nocturnal so viewing is in a darkened mock-up of a kiwi's habitat, with the help of infra-red lights. Hugo managed as far as the door leading to the kiwi house before  he turned and ran! It took a lot of coaching / bribing / scolding  before we made a return visit later in the day to view the 3 adorable birds. Kiwi's are now his favourite bird and 'glaciers are rather boring, mummy'

Franz Josef