We woke up in Franz Josef, Zealand and headed to take a helicopter to the glacier. They took us through a safety briefing and suited us up.
The helicopter ride was my first and super cool.
After dropping us off, we put on our crampons and walked away from the helicopter to get further safety briefing with our guide. Apparently there is safety canisters everywhere on the glacier and there is a hut that sleeps 80 in case the weather turns.
We both loved it!
There were some tight squeezes as we hiked around for a couple of hours.
The guide constantly had to repair ropes, steps, etc. because the glacier was melting.
We walked down into a tunnel they called an ice wedge, I think. It was very tight and very scary. It was a good 30 meters down.
After three and a half hour hike on the glacier we flew back. It was awesome!
We went to the hot glacial pools (it was included in the tour) but we had a long drive ahead back to Wanaka so we skipped them.
On the way back to Wanaka, we stopped at Fox Glacier. Fox Glacier and Franz Josef are two out of only three glaciers in the world that empty into a rain forest. We hiked up to Fox Glacier.
We went as far as we could.
We stopped to see deer on the way to Wanaka. Tons were being raised--none are wild in New Zealand. In fact all mammals in New Zealand were introduced by humans in the past hundred years. They have to kill all of the deer, possums, rats, etc. in certain islands to allow endangered birds to continue to thrive.
Then we checked into an adorable Inn.
Then we went to an awesome movie theatre with cars and couches to see Jack Reacher--surprisingly good movie.
Another awesome day in New Zealand!
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