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Published: March 25th 2007
We continued our journey down the coast to Franz Josef, a tiny town of about 300 people, one cash machine and about 2 roads with anything of interest on. Our driver Lauren put her foot down in order to get there so that we could do our heli-hike on the glacier, as the weather was perfect we had to grab the opportunity to get up on the glacier. franz Josef has something like 200 rain days a year so we had the luck of the English to see it in the sun.
We literally arrived, paid our money and headed to the helipad where we were kitted out with ugly boots, socks and waterproof coats...unfortunately no ice axes! At 2.30 our helicopter took off, we all got in, belted up and put on our headphones. Laura did get shot gun...oh yes! The pilot took us on a scenic flight over the glacier for 15 minutes before we landed on the ice to begin our walk. It was a bit scary landing on the ice and having the background noise of the helicopter, they are super duper loud!
As we are amazing we joined the advanced group and 7 of us
Captain Laura
In the helicopter ride up the glacier riding shot gun complete with head phones.set off with our guide Rhino and a promise of getting wet. We had crampons on our boots, basically little spikes to grip to the ice which took a bit of getting used to so we started with that whilst our guide cut steps in the ice where necessary. Straight away we were given our first opportunity to get wet which obviously everyone jumped at. There was a little ice slide that everyone squeezed down not the fastest or most exciting but pretty cool anyhoo. We continued hiking over the glacier and taking in the beauty of it. Then we came to a stop as our guide disappeared over a ledge and began hacking at the ice. We all went over to see what was going on and were shown a deep hole in the ice with water running through. He said this was our exit and made it very clear that we should not go past the point where all the water was swirling around as it was a massive plunge pool of freezing cold water. We found the entrance and began walking through a cave which stared our relatively wide and then narrowed into a tunnel that would
have made a worm claustrophobic. there was literally ice walls touching us on either side and ice cold water numbing our feet. Was a little scary but at the same time the adrenaline was pumping. We managed to get out by climbing the mini steps our guide had carved, everyone was safe excluding a large American guy. When he came to exit he managed to slip into the plunge pool and was consumed by the water up to his neck. Needless to say our guide crapped his pants and jumped to pull him out, he managed to do so but the guy fell back in again. Soo so funny as he came out safe and sound to find his friends viedoing the whole performance. Made the trip for us, the poor guy was soaked through.
When everyone was over the excitement we continued our hike and saw lots of deep crevasses and mini waterfalls winding there way down the glacier, was really stunning. After about 2 hours on the ice our helicopter returned and whisked us back down to non-icy land. One of the best things we've done.
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Chris
non-member comment
Luck of the English
Hey glad the weathergods smiled on you, just a tiny bit envious (no make that a huge bit). Hope you enjoy Wanaka and Queenstown and the super 14 if you go!. With your luck you will get to Milford and it will be sunny and no sandflies. When you get there think of your mum and grandjim, it rained a lot for them. Cheers Chris