Franz Josef Glacier South Island

Queenstown north on NZ State Highway 6 isn't classed as a scenic route. I've no idea why, although my guess would be that since it's the only highway north it doesn't need to be classified as scenic. Take my word for it... IT is SCENIC. Mountains, lakes bigger than Stirling Town and much, much more. Every twisting, winding stretch of road was WOW, …

Eergisteren was hier overdag niet veel te beleven in Hokita , ik zat hier in de hostel met in totaal 5 Duitse vrouwen waarvan er eentje op mijn kamer lag. Het heeft hier zowat de hele dag geregend tot en met 9u s avonds, gelukkig want we wouden nog de gloeiwormen in het bos gaan bekijken en in de regen zou dat niet zo plezant geweest zijn. Dus ik …

Te Anau 8.9.11
After the mayhem of Queenstown, it was time for a chilled out few days further south in Te Anau. It was a 2.5 hour journey, passing the Remarkables mountain range, the giant lake, crazy mental roads with scary cliff drops, whilst a tornado was basically throwing us all over the road. The views continued to …

12th of October

It took most of the morning to travel from Greymouth to Franz Josef. We stopped off at Hokitika which is a town famous for Pounamu (Greenstone) and Ross which is a town famous for its Gold Mining. We then travelled through Westland National Park before arriving in the cute little alpine village of Franz Josef.

In …

Aujourd’hui c’était la journée que j’attendais le plus ici, celle du hiking dans les glaciers. Je suis donc parti à l’aube pour le glacier Fox, j’ai chaussé mes bottines à crampons et j’ai pris un hélicoptère pour monter au glacier. Un vol d’une dizaine de minutes carrément spectaculaire, de super …

Melanie and I met up with the help of serendipity working its magic. We spent the day on a trek 15 km or so out and back (and around) to Franz Josef Glacier National Park from the town also named Franz Josef. What was serendipitus was it was my father's birthday back in the States and it was her father's birthday in Germany. Her father's name also …

I leave Wanaka wishing I'd spent more time there, as its essentially a chilled out version of Queenstown and there's a LOT I missed out on; next time I come to New Zealand I'd probably stay in Wanaka and go to Queenstown from there. It's also the kind of place I consider moving to if I emigrated to New Zealand, so either Wanaka or Tauranga better …

Woke up to bright blue skies and the sun beating in the window of the van (we needed it to thaw us out, v.cold overnight) Perfect conditions for our trip up to the glacier. We meet the group and our guide for the day, Will. Given all the gear we need for the day even down to thick socks for the boots. There were 3 other couples from the UK in our …

On the way to Franz Josef we passed through to Greymouth for another pick up. This is where Will Rowntree joined us for the ride. Yes,Rowntree from Fruit Pastilles fame! From here it was another 3 hours or so onto Franz. This is one of the things we couldn't wait to see, and the whales! One of NZ's finest sights! We reached the town of Franz Josef …

Day 6 on the Magic bus was a trip further down south to Franz Josef Glacier.

We departed early in the morning to make it to the glacier for a half day hike. The journey down to Franz Josef was spectacular (as any journey in the south island), with many stop offs for photos. Closer to the town of Franz Josef, we got out at this incredible …

... floor millions of years ago, slowly eroded by wind and water into their current forms.  We continued southward to Franz Josef Glacier.  Unfortunately, the terminal face was melting and partially caved in in January so the only option was an ...

The day dawned sunny, and I was highly excited! We were off to do a heli-hike on the Franz Josef glacier. A helicopter was going to carry us high up onto the glacier, where we would explore the crevasses and ice caves. At the heliport we were given boots ...

... early. We had planned to look into getting a helicopter flight over one of the glaciers, and we were advised to organize from Franz Josef - the biggest one. At lunchtime we arrived at Fox Glacier and took a walk to the bottom of this one and admired ...

... for photos, we started on the next project, Stevens's home brew and it was lovely and powerful. We all stayed for an hours or so and while we could still walk headed back to the pub to show off our knifes. Tomorrow we head to the Franz Josef ...

... in New Zealand's Southern Alps, where there is a Glacier that descends deep into the lush rainforest of Westland National Park. The Franz Josef glacier is one of 4 in the world, that is situated that close to the sea, along with being so close to a ...

... later in our story)... We stopped for the day when we got to Franz Josef, a small town that sits just below the Franz Josef Glacier. A little while after checking into the hostel, I (Rachel) went to make a phone call and came back to find that we ...

... good reflective views at Lake Matheson. We called off at Peter's Pool on the way to get a stunning reflective view of the Franz Josef glacier, made even more memorable by the fact that it was so quiet. I'd opted not to do it the previous day, partly ...

... town, and here endith the strangely titled 'All-Day' Fox Glacier Walk. Having spoken to two people who hiked on Franz Josef glacier, although it costs more ($135 approx) there are reasons why it is more popular. Namely it has more dramatic features ...

Alex: We got into Franz Josef and headed straight out to the glacier. The glacier sits at the end of a valley it has calved, and a sign marks the end of the glacier in 1720, about 2 km from the glacial face today. The valley is beautiful and the glacier ...

... the rental company for not letting us know. With new found happiness, we continued our journey South along a coastal road. We stopped at Franz Josef Glacier along the way and did the short walk to the viewpoint which provided spectacular views of ...