Day 12: Franz Joseph Glacier

Morning came much too soon for us. Our days had been so filled to the brim with fun and adventure that we hardly stayed awake until 10pm each night. Stars didn’t come out until after that, so we really splurged on time when we attempted to stargaze the night before. As always, Becca’s need for caffeine, alongside the knowledge of what awaits us that day, provided enough motivation to get up early again. 

We grabbed a quick breakfast at a local cafe before heading just a few blocks down the road to the touring office. Upon check-in, we were weighed and tagged with wristbands, then shuffled to a locker room to put on special boots and additional layers. We were each given an oddly large fanny-pack shaped bag to sling around one shoulder. In it, we were responsible for our borrowed cramp-on’s (intense metal spikes to attach to our boots once on the glacier), a hat, and whatever food or drinks we brought with us. Once properly dressed and armed with our fanny packs, we walked half a mile through a wooded area to the helicopter landing site. Our wristbands provided our seat designations based on our weights to ensure that the total weight of all passengers was evenly distributed. Within minutes, the helicopter arrived and we loaded up to fly a short 10 minutes to the glacier. 

With cramp-on’s carefully laced and tightened, and a spiked walking stick in hand, we got into single file and fearlessly followed our ice-pick wielding guide through the crevices and peaks of the Frans Joseph Glacier. Our guide always went first with his ice pick to clean up the trail ahead of us. A special team flew out to the glacier each morning to make sure that the general idea of the trail was safe and obvious before any tours started. Glaciers are constantly moving and shifting, even if it’s slowly, and all the guides are constantly on alert for signs of possible danger. Even on our tour the sun was incredibly hot and we saw the ice melting down the walls of the glacial passages. Our guide would chip away at a wall to fill in a growing crack in the trail, recreate steps on a surface, and constantly remind us to stay on the trail. While we all felt very safe on the trail with our guide, it could be dangerous and deadly fast if we were to stray.

We signed up for the 4 hour hiking tour, and we loved every minute of it. 

Part of the tour package included a ticket into the hot pools. While it was already incredibly hot outside, we did make use of our pass and spent an hour relaxing in a private hot pool.

Our day ended with a bit more driving as we continued north to Hokitika. Clothes were thrown into the wash while we got settled into our AirBNB, and then Becca taught Scott how to use a clothesline. Most of our AirBNB homes didn’t have a dryer inside, but all of them had clotheslines. We will never take our dryer for granted. 

After all of the clothes were hung, we drove a couple of miles to a highly recommended dinner place: Fat Pipi’s Pizza. We split a delicious BBQ pizza, and brought a dessert pizza home to eat while continuing to watch Lord of the Rings.

Once again, it was a marvelous day.

As always, more photos are available on our Smugmug page.