Franz Josef & Fox Glaciers, New Zealand

On route to the Glaciers we spent one night at Westport and another at Greymouth. Both of which were small villages that have a history in gold / coal mining. These were handy ‘stop offs’ but not a lot to write home about. We did manage to amuse ourselves with just how seriously some people take camping! The guy on the pitch next to us lived there full time and was most certainly a sandwich short of a picnic and then there are other extremes like this…

On our drive to Franz Josef we stopped at the Pancake Rocks. Now whilst I was hoping for some sort of sweet treat, it was in fact a ‘Mother Nature’ special of huge limestone rocks that have formed over millions of years. What is usual about them is the stacks they have formed which look like neat piles of pancakes (it’s actually due to a weathering process called stylobedding).

Pancake Rocks, NZ

At the snow capped Franz Josef Glacier we manage to get a good look via one of the set walking tracks. It was here we also had a mooch around Lake Matheson where the water was so still it reflected the mountain scenery perfectly!

Next stop was the Fox Glacier which is slightly smaller and quieter. Here we were lucky that the weather gods allowed us to go on a Heli Hike tour (www.fox guides.co.nz) in the morning as the afternoon session was cancelled due to cloud coverage. The trip was a 4 hour ice-hike which included a return helicopter ride where we were able to explore a remote and pristine part of the glacier on foot. We even had a private guided tour as a lady in our original group was not able to continue. The ice on the Fox Glacier is amazing, underneath the surface it is brilliantly blue which is something to do with it being the only colour that makes it through the softer white surface. The pictures don’t do it justice but because the ice is constantly moving it creates spectacular ice caves, arches and tunnels! Check out our 2 videos from the Heli Hike, you may need to copy and paste the links into your browser https://youtu.be/V3KzEGJkCbc and https://youtu.be/Z8vvMHNLOlU .