Well the itinerary is shot to pieces - we have lost the odd day here and there since we stayed in Timaru and we are way behind. So the first big decision is that we will now fly from Christchurch to Sydney and not from Auckland. The North Island is going to have to wait until next time - shame but its better to enjoy where we are than just rush for days to catch a flight.
The next big decision involved walking on the Franz Joseph glacier. Our plan was to book onto the 1 day walking tour but they were all fully booked for TWO days - our only option was a heli-hike which involved a helicopter up onto the glacier, a two hour hike and helicopter back down.
Now helicopter is not my favourite mode of transport and probably even less above a glacier - plus it blew in one go all the holiday savings made from being in a camper van - but chance in a lifetime etc etc and the heli-hike was booked.
Only challenge was that our first day in Franz Joseph the weather was still not good and the helicopters were grounded - so we walked up to the terminal face of the glacier......a nine mile hike that resembled Mars again -
and there were some serious health and safety warnings - including a photo of a bulldozer trying to recover a body from fallen ice - say no more!
This is the terminal face - again it looks dirty from moraine cover. At least going by helicopter we dont need to climb over this
The weather slowly improved but the cloud was still very low. We drove down to Lake Matheson near the Fox Glacier. This lake is in most of the iconic photos of New Zealand with the reflection of the mountains in the lake....we did not get mountains (you can see how low the cloud is) but we did get a reflection and a brilliant walk around the lake through rainforest...
We went to bed still not sure if the cloud would lift - the night was freezing and the van inside was 10 degrees.......fingers crossed....
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