Franz Josef and Fox Glacier

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I have been on many glaciers in the alps but this place is unreal. Imagine glaciers starting at sea level near the sea which is surrounded by rainforest. It just doesn't seem real.

Instead of the normal hikes people do I did ice climbing. This involved a 5 hour walk on the glacier followed by picking walls and scaling them with crampons and ice picks. Very demanding but a bloody good buz. I even managed to do an overhang which was very phyically challenging!

The Rainforest retreat hostel was great with its 15 man spa. Had 3 bloody good nights in that spa!

Fox Glacier was what I was really waiting for. I didn't walk it as Franz is bigger. However its claimed to be the best skydive in the world and I believe them. We flew threw the constant clouse base of 3 thousand feet to reveal Mt Cook and Mt Tasman. What a flight and doing backflips though the clouds watching the snowy southern alps was an experience I'll never never forget. Pretty scary too as the landing area was 7 km away from the take off strip and all the fields looked the same. Of course I survived to tell the tale!

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Photos

The Southen Alps!
Imagine how I felt freefalling next to this!