We started off nice and early by driving out to Hokitika Gorge, about 40 minutes away from the town centre. From there we started our little bush walk. Actually, it was a lovely walk as I hadn’t seen rainforest in New Zealand yet.
Within hardly 4 minutes we caught sight of the beautiful torquoise gorge. There I learned that the gorgeous colour was a result of rock flour mixed in with minerals from melted glacier ice.
We continued walking until we got to the swing bridge. I couldn’t get over the colour of the water. Growing up that in between blue green colour was my favourite.
Cute little ducks
We continued walking until we hit the river’s edge. The little adventure bug in my was jumping up and down as I saw the chance to do some climbing. No one else was game, which suited me as I had found my spot of solitude for the next few hours.
Mum was calling out to me to pose properly so I struck this one. I reckon I could sell some mountaineering fashion.
Afterwards we made the 2 hour journey to Franz Josef. It was another drive of windy roads. On the drive I checked the weather forecast to find that our scheduled helicopter flight on the day after might be spoiled by rain. So, I called up to see if they could do it today. They also agreed that it wasn’t looking too good tomorrow and that to do it as soon as possible is best as the late afternoon would also be drawing in some wind and rain clouds.
Unfortunately, it was a little windy on one area of the mountains so we had to cut our trip shorter but we were lucky to have the clouds lifting for a fair chunk of our trip AND the rain held off. Actually our trip became the last one of the day as while we were descending down, little rain droplets started to make an appearance.
Fox Glacier – this glacier plummets from 2,600 metres high in the Southern Alps and is over 13km in length. It is fed by four alpine glaciers that receive more than 30 metres of snowfall each year.
After circling around the glacier areas, we made a snow landing. It was very smooth. I was the first one out of the helicopter and I had no idea how thick the snow was going to be. I took a step and squealed as I my legs caved knee deep into the snow. Then I squealed in excitement and just started running away (in slow motion) from the helicopter enjoying the awkwardness.
I started testing myself on how light I could take my steps to not have the snow fall beneath my feet. Sometimes I was able to stand on it……. but that’s probably because the snow was harder. Or I’m a less miraculous form of Jesus. Let’s go with the latter.
Franz Josef Glacier
Alright, continuing on with my other blogs from New Zealand. Today does have another focus and its an obvious one…… I couldn’t eliminate all my favourites from visiting the mountains and glaciers so please, without any further ado – my snow exhibition.
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