Around the world in 300 days

After Haast Pass we spent the night beside a lake with the rainforest covered mountains as a backdrop - perfect! We headed straight for the Fox Glacier. It was raining by this point so we donned our waterproofs and walked right up to the glacier's moraine. It was huge and only made us more excited about seeing the Franz Josef Glacier. With full bellies from a massive fry up at the Fox Glacier township we travelled down the road to Franz Josef town. Almost as soon as we arrived we signed up for a heli-hike for the following day!

Fox Glacier

To say we were excited would be an understatement. The trip didn't start until 10.15am but we were up, giggling excitedly and trying to calm each other down by 7am!!! After the usual safety chats and the dishing out of gear we were ready. We climbed aboard the helicopter - Nic got to sit up at the front next to the pilot! We had the most perfect weather, blue skies and no clouds, we could see for miles and the views were just gobsmacking.

View of Franz Josef Glacier from the helicopter

We landed on the ice, attached our crampons and then began our hike. We were on the ice for about an hour and a half, climbing through ice caves, over gullies and beside small waterfalls. The ice was a beautiful blue in places and just as we began to relax in the serenity of it all there was a small avalanche near the top of the glacier! We continued hiking beside a pristine clear lake and over jagged ice formations. The view from the glacier was fantastic and we both filled our cameras with endless pictures of ice, snow and towering mountains.

It was all over too quickly and on the way back down we both got to sit up front, we had the best views in the house! By the time we had landed back in the town grey clouds had quickly worked their way over to the glacier - talk about perfect timing!