Our drive up to Franz Josef was a bit of a mixed bag of weather. Leaving Wanaka we had beautiful sunshine and as we headed over the pass we started into heavy rain. We geared up for a short walk to the Blue Pools, along the scenic highway, to find that they were now green due to all the rain. As we continued on to Haast and through to Franz Josef we continued to be met by rain and low lying cloud. We had a tour of the glacier booked but it was cancelled to due lack of visibility. Thankfully we had an extra day, and we rebooked for what promised to be the better day. Franz Josef had a brief break in the rain on our second morning to complete the walk into Franz Josef Glacier and see it from within 750m, but the skies opened up again to give us a great napping afternoon with tons of rain. Our final day in the area proved to be beautiful, clear skies and crystal blue. With the rain over the previous few days the glacier was a shade of blue only reminiscent of the ocean. It is approximately 12km long and continues to recede annually, although they did see an advance a couple of years ago due to heavy snowfall. It is known to be a “fast moving” glacier, meaning it can shift up to 7m during a summer day and 1m during a winter day.
We headed up to the glacier on a helicopter to hike through a variety of crevasses that were relatively deep and came with a couple of rumbles along the way (no worries mum...all good!)
Our helicopter ride was great, the pilot explained the mountains and the waterfalls on the way up/down and made a smooth landing both times. For a first ride...it was awesome! The pictures say it all...enjoy!