Spending the night near Franz Josef village, it was freezing cold and pouring with rain, not to mention cloudy. I seriously doubted the possibility of our heli-hike at Fox Glacier down the road the next morning. It was touch-and-go but we did manage to get onto the helicopter and fly into the Fox Glacier, land the chopper, and do a 2-3hr hike around the glacier. It was amazing! There had been snow during the night and the glacier was covered in about a foot of snow, which made it more difficult for the guides to navigate our way around. But they did a fantastic job and we loved every minute! We wore crampons on our boots for extra grip, and used a trekking pole to gauge the depth of the snow in front of our steps. Sometimes the pole went straight through with no bottom in sight! Luckily the guide, Passang always went first. He had been guiding at Fox for five years, and spent a few months each year leading treks around Mt Everest. He was great. The conditions were changing constantly, from sunny and cool to freezing, windy, hail and snow and cloudy. We had our thermals on and we were good. This has been the most spectacular day, I’m stoked we did this. When the sky was clear, it was SO clear and crisp, and the views are just stunning. Yay for Fox Glacier! It’s a shame the weather is so crap on this western coast of the south island of NZ because the scenery is spectacular. We are now in Grey mouth (windy rainy coastal town) and will head up north tomorrow.
