South Island day 3: Franz Josef to Wanaka

When we opened the curtains this morning, we saw something that we couldn’t see last night – the glacier. Although it was still drizzling on and off, the cloud had lifted considerably. This actually made it near-perfect weather for our glacier ‘Ice explorer’ trip – not too hot. Raewyn and I both had turns sitting in the front of the helicopter – me going up, and her coming back. We were all jammed in there, and within five minutes we were on the ice.

Our guide turned out to be from Upper Hutt and was really chatty. After putting crampons on, we climbed up part of the ice fall, with the guide pointing out various features along the way. There were quite a few groups up there, but I guess part of that was because the trips scheduled for the day before had been cancelled due to poor visibility.

Here are some of my favourite photos from the trip:


Crampons on!


Climbing through the ice fall


Raewyn feeling a little bit blue but otherwise enjoying herself immensely


Having a break from taking photos


Hoping the crevasse doesn't close


Ice sculptures - looking up


Raewyn's second ride in a helicopter (the first one being a couple of hours before)


We had lunch back at Franz Josef before hitting the road and driving over the Haast Pass to Wanaka. The sun made a brief appearance and the scenery was spectacular as always. Unfortunately we were distracted from the scenery by a very, very bad driver (who, yes, happened to be Asian).


No, he hadn't just finished passing us. Yes, he was trying to pass the vehicle in front, on a blind corner. And nearly got wiped out by a car coming the other way.


Tomorrow we are ditching the car and taking to our bikes for the first time on the trip – heading for Dean’s Bank, Clutha river trail, and we’ll see what happens after that.