Helihike on Franz Josef

Happy to be out of Greymouth, we drove to Franz Josef, we stopped briefly in a town that has so much gold in it that when you buy a house you only own the first 6 inches of land and cannot dig up your backyard - well you can but if you find anything you have to give it to the Crown. We arrived just in time to go on a helicopter ride up the glacier for a two hour hike. It was very pricey but if you're going to go, you should go all the way.

The helicopter ride was very fun, our pilot did some moves that made us scream and turn our stomachs, but no worries it was completely safe.

The glacier was quite a bit colder at about 10C but I had pants and wore several layers of t-shirts. They provide you with boots, cramp-ons (spikes so you won't slip), socks and jackets.

The glacier is much different than the one in Canada that breaks off and falls into the ocean. This one does not melt but it does move 3 feet a day down the hill. It is formed by snow and rain that fall further up the mountain which cannot melt because it's so cold, the weight of the ice becomes so tremendous that it gets pushed down the mountain forming a glacier.

They divided a large group into smaller groups and we were designated at the slower/want to take pictures group. There was a group of people from Australia and boy were they slow, but it was good because it gave me time to take lots of pictures.

These are digital only and underexposed a bit so I'll need to fix them. I also took some film which should turn out much better, I'll swap them in once I find a place to develop to a CD.

The view from the helicopter, we were two-thirds of the way up.

I was going to stay here another day to go kayaking but there is supposed to be heavy rain tomorrow so it'll be a good day to take a bus ride to Queenstown and I may try to catch the fjords in Milford Sound.