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Published: January 28th 2008
28th January 2008
Today we left Hokitika and moved further south to Franz Josef a very small village in the shadow of the glacier. The main purpose of today was to get a helicopter ride up Aoraki/Mount Cook and see the Franz Josef glacier and Fox glacier.
When we left about 7-30am it was fairly overcast and there was some doubt about whether we would be able to fly at all.
When we arrived at the Fox glacier helicopter office they seemed hopeful that we would be able to fly and told us to come back 15 minutes before we were due to fly for final confirmation.
We had a quick car ride up to the foot of the Fox Glacier and decided to come back later for a walk to the face.
When we got back the helicopter was ready and the clouds were lifting. How lucky are we!!!!
The ride was fantastic and Annette and I took lots of snaps before we touched down on the glacier. As we had our picture taken for the tourist card (which has turned out quite well!) we could hardly believe we were really there. Vernon and Bob decided to have a race
to summit ridge while we where there. Bob started ahead of Vern, but Vern's improved technque with snow and ice climbing soon took over and he easily got to the summit ridge first.
The trip was over far too soon and we are starting to think we might do another one on the other side of Mount Cook. We are getting a bit greedy here!
On the ride we saw some climbers on a training climb where they lower themselves down crevases and try and get out. We also saw some chamois leaping about on the glacier as the helicopter went over.
We arrived back elated and had a snack before setting off to walk to the foot of the Fox glacier.
Now we are back at our very nice motel which has a view of Mount Cook, which is now covered in cloud, and we are looking through the masses of photos we took.
Tomorrow we shall do a walk if the weather allows before setting off to the Hermitage.
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Neal
non-member comment
Fantastic pics
What a brilliant thing to have done! I am very jealous looking at those pictures while sitting here in grey old England. You are doing very well on the blog as you haven't missed a day yet. I look forward to catching up on your progress each day when I get up.