The Glaciers – Fox and Franz Josef

Rach and Jon by our green heli
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I was intending to do a heli-hike which involved a heli ride up the glacier, landing in the snow, and then hiking your way down. We looked into alternatives and when I suggested a whole day of ice climbing instead Jon agreed and it was the best decision we made as let’s face it, it’s much better to be abseiling down, looking in from the depths and climbing out with ice picks. Plus we got a whole 9hrs out there (which included a hefty 3hr round trek up into the glacier) rather than a couple of hours. This has to be the greatest thing I’ve done as a day activity on my travels and 2^nd most fun - following closely behind sky diving – still top of the list – can’t recommend it enough!

Jon and Rach on the Heli ride at the top of the glacier
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As we didn’t go for the heli-hike we opted to do some areal sightseeing over the glacier the day before out ice climb. It was my first ever helicopter ride and I loved every minute of it – I sat right next to the pilot. We flew over and around Fox Glacier to get a birds-eye view of where we’d be ice climbing the next day. Stunning, really stunning, it put the scale of it into proportion.

Ice Climbing - favourite activity on my travels so far

Looking down the Glacier from the top
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I loved Fox Glacier as a town, really quite small but such character. The next day, with aching muscles, we drove onto Franz Josef glacier to have a look and although I couldn’t see any significant difference between the glaciers, we were less impressed by the town so we didn’t linger.