It is a 2.5-3hr drive from Greymouth to Westland Tai Poutini National Park where the famous Franz Josef and Fox glaciers are located.  We arrive early for our scheduled helicopter ride as we are excited. However, to our dismay it was postponed due to weather.  Shoot!  Lucky for us, we are here for a few days so we reschedule for the next day.  

We decided to go on several hikes to occupy our newly available day.  The first hike we go is called Callery Gorge Walk which takes us about 1.5hrs.

Our trail ends at another swing bridge. The right photo is the bridge from the street.

Franz Josef Glacier Walk

We head to the Franz Josef Glacier Valley walk which takes about 1hr.  This is a very easy walk on a well marked trail that leads to a large viewing platform. 

Matt has some fun with a cardboard photo of a ranger.

This is a sad fact…the Franz Josef glacier reached all the way to the viewing platform in 1908 and now look at it.

Franz Josef Glacier & Many Other Glaciers

There are many names for this one glacier, but the main one is “Te Norma a Tuawe” which means the bed of Tuawe who is a minor god.  It also is called Roimata o hone which translates to the tears of the avalanche maiden.  It is rumored that a local maori convinced her lover to traverse the mountain.  He was killed in an avalanche and it is said her tears froze creating the glacier.

The next day we arrive at Ultimate Discoveries for our 8:15am helicopter ride and we were informed that the departure is delayed due to a low, cloud layer near the heli pad.  No problem, we hang out and chat with the other guests and team that work at Ultimate Discoveries.  

This company is a family run business and they have the best customer service!  I would highly recommend them – you can take a 25, 35, or 45 minute flight and won’t be disappointed.  I hop in the front seat and capture some stunning shots of Franz Josef.

A Slight Diversion

A rain storm was expected to arrive in the afternoon, but it surprised us and was rolling in pretty quickly early in the morning.  This unfortunately prevented us from turning west towards Fox and Tasman Glacier and Mount Cook.  But our skilled pilot took us east toward several other glaciers.  Unfortunately I could not write down their names, take photos, and enjoy the ride so you just get gorgeous photos.

A few more glaciers – I just love the blue tint in the snow.

This long slide is one of my favorite shots (lower left corner).

And of course, there are a lot of mountains with no snow or glaciers due to climate change.  The reflecting pools are so pretty against the green and brown mountains.

It is summer so I assume there is more snow in the winter, but our pilot told us that the glaciers are shrinking by 1 kilometer every 10 years.

Landing on Shackleton Glacier

We dropped down on Shackleton Glacier for a fabulous photo op and it was freezing!  Yes, Matt is in shorts and yes he is crazy and yes he was cold!

Certainly a once in a life time experience.

I love the blue hue on the ice.

Some fun shots of us inside the Airbus Squirrel.  Wayne road in the front on the way back.

After our amazing ride, we returned to the office where they offered us a $100 per person refund because we were only able to be up for 35 minutes vs the planned 45 minutes due to weather.  Wow, we did not ask for the refund, they offered it straight up.  This really is a top notch organization (thank you Aaron and Georgia).

Lake Matheson

One of New Zealand’s most beautiful and iconic lakes is Lake Matheson.  Every year thousands of people come to do the loop around the lake to capture photos of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman and their reflections.  We follow the red trail around the lake.

It is still a little drizzly and definitely cloudy so we don’t expect to see much.  But, it is a beautiful walk through an amazing rain forest and around a pretty lake so why not?

If we had a sunny and clear day, you would be able to see Mount Cook behind Matt and Mount Tasman behind Wayne.

We did get some pretty lake shots.

The top photo is what the view looks like on a clear, sunny day.  The bottom two photos are what we got – still beautiful, but simply not the same.

Glacier Fun Facts

• There are over 2900 glaciers in New Zealand
• The majority of the glaciers do not have names.  
• A glacier has to be over an acre in size in order to be considered a glacier
• There are only 3 glaciers in the world that come from rainforests and two are in NZ.  The Franz Josef and the Fox glacier.  The other is in Patagonia.
• The last time they saw any glacier advancement was in 1986.

Kiwi Rehabilitation Center

I visit a kiwi rehabilitation center in Franz Josef.  They have two young kiwis here and are incubating dozens of others.  The organizations collects the eggs and incubates them for 78 days. Kiwi eggs have a 5% survival rate in the wild so they collect them, grow them to maturity, then release them in the wild.  The babies take 3 days to hatch and are born with site, smell, taste, and hearing.  The Kiwi are kept in natural habitats, taught to forage, and then released back into the wild.

• Hotel: Alpine Glacier Motel
• Kilometers Traveled:   47km
• Total time traveled: 35 minutes
• Kilometers walked: 5.5km

The kiwis are nocturnal.  No photography is allowed in the center unfortunately.

Events from this blog occurred in early March.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Did you miss our blog post on the pancake rocks, Mitchell goldmine, and shanty town?