Glacier Land

Trip Start Jul 24, 2007
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Trip End Nov 11, 2007


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Friday, October 12, 2007

Arrived in Franz Josef yesterday to glorious sunshine and really great views of the southern alps and the bottom of the glacier. The Eco system here is really unique because its only one of two places in the world where a Glacier runs down into a subtropical rainforest and then to the sea so the glacier is pretty much at sea level or at least it used to be before global warming became an issue! Anyway the places in really beautiful. Franz Josef itself is a really tiny little place. I'm not sure whether it would even be given village status in the UK but its a town in New Zealand and all the basics are here including loads of backpackers and hotels and then stores which sell tours of the glacier.

I was supposed to do the helihike today along with 5 other girls on the bus. We got up early and were at the Glacier guides place by 8.30 am like we were told, we got all the boots and jackets and stuff on ready to get on the helicopter and it got cancelled because the clouds had come down too low and the wind had picked up high on the mountain - I was soo gutted Road to Franz Josef
Road to Franz Josef
 . We booked on the two later trips but the cloud never lifted and just got worse - I guess thats the luck of the draw but I really wanted to do that (",) I could have done a hike up the glacier but didn't see the point in spending money to climb up there when visability was so poor so me, emma and michelle decided at least to walk to the base of the glacier -it was an 8km walk (in miles thats almost 5 miles) return hike - fortunately most of it was flat so it was pretty easy going and didn't actually feel like 5 miles. The views of the glacier from the ground weren't too bad although the cloud had started to creep down further and it was hard to get pictures where you can differentiate the snow from the cloud unfortunately. How much do I wish I;d done the helihike yesterday!! still its all good and i'm hoping I might at least be able to do a helicopter ride in Wanaka or Queenstown in the next couple of days!!

I have some amazing pictures of this place and can't get them to upload - the photos that I have put on don't do it justice!!
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