Saturday:

Today we have booked a heli-hike on the Franz Joseph Glacier, consisting of a chopper flight up to the main face of the glacier and a two hour guided hike on the glacier. We get kitted up with rain and ice gear (including crampons for the boots supplied) and set off. This is one of the best things we have ever done and of course (as always) the photo's cannot do the trip justice by half. Suffice to say that it was awe-inspiring. The current glacier moves forward (down the valley) by about 1 metre per day, but is also retreating on the underside. Huge mounds of terminal moraine (rock) dot the valley floor and the surrounding lakes in the valley were formed by huge chunks of ice coming off the front of the glacier as it retreated.

The Franz Joseph and adjacent Fox Glaciers and two of only three glaciers worldwide that terminate in a temperate forest (the other being in Argentina).

Another interesting fact is that there is a green parrot family habitating the snow (again the only place in the world where this occurs) quite intelligent with an IQ of about a 5-year-old (equivalent to a 25-year-old Australian according to our Kiwi guide).

We got real lucky today as the trip after ours was cancelled due to the strong possibility of rain.

When Captain Cook sailed past he thought the glacier was a cloud in the valley as he could not conceive at the time that a glacier would run down into a temperate rain forest.

After the glacier we meander along to Haast and see some awesome lakes on the way and cross what should have been awesome rivers, but the drought has shriveled them somewhat!

The motor camp at Haast is nothing to write home about, but Lyn does the laundry and we both fight off the sand flies that have one helluva bite!