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New Zealand Slideshow
Travel Blogs from Franz Josef , New Zealand
Rivers of ice
This is a top pick! 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 ...
Grounded...
This is a top pick! ... 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 ...
Glaciers
This is a top pick! ... obsession had to take a back seat as they'd run out! I made do with a bacon and egg toasted sarnie instead. We arrived at Franz Josef early afternoon, and once again I'd scored highly in the tour guide stakes. I'd chosen a nice motel for us to stay in ...
Walks around the Glacier
This is a top pick! The weather was atrocious on the journey to Franz Josef. On the way, the coach driver played a video about glaciers and how they are formed, so that made the trip interesting. I was certainly excited about seeing the glaciers up close, as I found it an ...
Dec 10, 2011
This is a top pick! 
Franz Josef and Fox Glacier
This is a top pick! ... . We killed the rest of the afternoon watching the first Lord of the Rings film, trying to spot places we had visited! Our final day in Franz Josef was spent being rained on and just chilling out. We chose the right days for our glacier visits at ...
Glacier walking in Franz Josef
This is a top pick! We rolled up to little Franz Josef village, which is basically just a selection of motels, hostels and the odd restaurant / shop, in the late afternoon. Has to be said that the views are awesome...... We picked the hostel that had the freebies thrown in ...
Franz Josef
This is a top pick! ... was ok with me. I little info about the trips. I was going to pay $120 for a 20 min flight that included flying around the Franz glacier landing at the top and being able to walk around for 3 mins. The upgraded trip: cost $360 you are in the air for 45 ...
More Spectacular Scenery
This is a top pick! ... did I know my world travels would reveal so many lapses in my English!! Today's journey along Rt. 6 from Greymouth to Franz Josef hugged the fabulous dramatic coastline on one side, while glorious scenic mountain reserves lay out the other window. The ...
I SEE SNOW!!!
This is a top pick! ... day people and welcome once again! Thankfully, this entry actually has some useful news in it! What a surprise! So we arrived in Franz Josef at a really nice hostel that gave us a beautiful view of the snow covered mountains! Photos are on there way. ...
WTFlood?
This is a top pick! ... the mist and clouds surrounding the top of the mountains in the rainforest were quite a sight. There is an amazing glacier at Franz Josef, but unfortunately the weather was too bad to get up the road to see it. Everything was pretty much canceled. Aside ...
Franz Josef Glacier then the TranzAlpine train
This is a top pick! Following our stop over in Queenstown and feeling rested and ready for more adventure we make plans to head to the Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast of New Zealand. FJ (as it will be called as Franz Josef is far too long a word to type) was a ...
On the road to MT Cook
This is a top pick! ... trip; this time a bit further down the island starting of with the tropical looking waters of Lake Tekapo; the rivers and streams across new Zealand have this amazing crystal clear look about them as if you can scoop up a handful and drink it right there. ...
Headed South
This is a top pick! ... bus yelled "drink!" and the rest of us followed suit, hit an offies and had a carry out on the bus heading for Wellington, New Zealand's capital. The craic was brilliant, none of us were looking for a booze cruise tour, but a wee drink once in a while ...
Glaciers!!!
This is a top pick! ... to see our first landscape shaping mass of ice up close, but we weren't here for that, we were here to walk on to Franz Josef Glacier. We headed off on our trip with Dale our guide to the terminal face of the glacier. The glacier still remains from ...
Nelson to Franz Josef Glacier
This is a top pick! ... them, and swings them onto the bus as if they were full of foam. She drives like a manic and takes the corners around New Zealand's extremely bendy roads, like she's driving a rally car. Whilst "flying" down the coast on the way to Greymouth, we stop ...
My new job as a Travel Guide!
This is a top pick! ... up - I was going back to Shortbread Cottage! So, after departing the Milford Wanderer, we set off on the long journey to Franz Josef at 9.45am. It would be a full 12 hours later that we'd arrive at our destination... We passed through some amazing, ...
Cass Research Station
This is a top pick! ... the Easter holiday. I had gone before with some graduate students who are doing some work with plants and their response to fire in New Zealand. It sounds odd, but fire is not "native" to NZ. It came with people and thus the government is interested to ...
New Zealand - South Island West Coast
This is a top pick! The Fox Glacier is one of two major glaciers along the West Coast of South Island; the other is Franz Josef Glacier, just 30 minutes north of Fox. Both glaciers offer heli-hikes, day long and half-day hikes but Franz Josef is said to be more crowded with ...
Glacial Expedition
This is a top pick! ... to discover that our journey had in fact taken us nearer five and a half hours by the time we reached the outskirts of Franz Josef (more winding mountain roads slowed us down too) and we had driven into a different weather system. Heavy cloud loomed low ...
River of ice
This is a top pick! Having planned to get up early and maybe do a helihike, we ended up having a lazy day in Franz Josef. The weather was very cloudy and not great for viewing mountains and glaciers and we basically decided to do nothing! After a slow morning we drove ...
Franz Josef Glacier
This is a top pick! We left Motueka early on Wednesday morning for a long 8 hour drive down the rugged West Coast to our next stop, Franz Josef Glacier. We had perfect weather driving down the 1st half of the west coast and stopped off to check out the Punakaikai Pancake ...
Glaciers sparkle
This is a top pick! ... we might have missed it!!)we realised that Kaikoura which we thought was a sleepy town was actually a buzzing city in comparison. Franz Josef exists for sight seeing and trekking tours of the nearby glacier and therefore every building is either a hostel, ...
Franz Josef - It was nice to have met you.
This is a top pick! ... by staying in a pretty high spec campervan park in Franz Josef, home of one of the two commercially guided Glaciers in New Zealand. It’s a nice campervan park and we are currently deciding whether to take in the happy hour drinkies in the bar (with ...
Glaciers and Jelly Wrestling, a nice combo....
This is a top pick! This area of New Zealand is home to a bunch of glaciers, one of which (Franz Josef) we planned on climbing. It was pretty cold here, even more snow on the mountains than there was further south. We thought that we might get to go up to see the glacier ...
Put me on ice
This is a top pick! ... impressed) so I rushed into the Intercity station there to book a ticket for the next leg of the ride. So glad I did. Franz Josef is famous for its glacier, unique in that it carves through the mountain to almost sea level into a subtropical ...
Heli Hike
This is a top pick! ... country I have seen and it reminds me a lot of home. First stop on the journey today is the longest swing bridge in New Zealand. At over 100 metres in length near the town of Murchison it spans the dramatic Buller Gorge and either we've put on ...
The long retreat
This is a top pick! ... as snow, then smothering the snow, bouncing on top of it until compacted to ice, which it then shoves slowly down the mountain. Franz Josef flows downhill at up to 5m a day, pushing plane wrecks kilometers to the bottom in less than a decade. The ice ...