Wednesday 14th February – Franz Josef Glacier

We awoke to the sound of helicopters flying all around.  They’re rubbing it in.  I also have a conspiracy theory.  The road to Fox Glacier was, apparently, completely destroyed by the storms a couple of weeks ago meaning that the only possible method of reaching the glacier is via helicopter.  The heli-businesses around here must be rubbing their hands together with glee.  I think they are all fully booked!

Views of Fox Glacier.... as close as we could get!

As a helicopter flight to the glacier is out of our price range we have booked something a little bit different to go and see the glacier…. A two-hour horse trek.  We were booked on the 1130am ride when we were introduced to our trusty steeds – a ‘Bay’ called ‘95’ for me and a ‘Palomino’ called Shammy for Simon.

There were only two other riders in the group, so a nice small riding party.  Si’s horse had to be at the rear because otherwise he’d bully the others, so I went in front of him.  The main issue with the ride was the fact that we actually rode away from the glacier, so we ended up further away from it than we had been when we’d been driving on the road!  We kind of expected we would be climbing and benefitting from the horses being able to cope with the terrain.  I had managed to get a decent shot of Franz Josef Glacier from a viewpoint on the way to the stables, that I now realised we were not going to be able to better (pic)! However, it’s always nice to be out on horseback, and a couple of us with previous riding experience were even allowed to go for a little trot and a canter, which was exhilarating for me…. And very bouncy, but I clung on!  It’s been a while…  The weather alternated between scorching hot and rain showers with some cloud covering the glacier at all times, though Si managed to get a couple of decent photos on his iPhone and our guide took some photos of both of us:  

The helicopters continued to fly over our heads regularly making me feel guilty because I know that Simon would much rather be in a helicopter than riding a horse!  We were out for over two hours in the end and were aching by the end of that time, so we were happy to jump off and thank our hoofed helpers.

We headed into the town to grab a couple of things for lunch as it was now nearly 2pm.  We both felt that we hadn’t really ‘seen’ the glacier properly despite our efforts on horseback.  We decided to squeeze in a speedy 30-minute walk to reach a viewpoint closer to the glacier and get some photos.

Franz Josef Glacier (on foot!)

A Silvereye

New Zealand Pigeon

Then it was time to get some driving done for the day!  We didn’t stop too many more times and were both exhausted from all of the fresh air we’d had by the time we reached Greymouth at about 6pm.