Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier is HUGE! We hiked for about 5 hours on the ice, and we didn't come any where near the top of the glacier. It is such an amazing natural formation - I've never seen anything like this in my life! New Zealand's landscape is so beautiful but a little odd - only a few days before we were swimming in natural hot pools... Then here we were climbing on this gigantic ice formation a couple days later.

Despite being surrounded by ice, I got incredibly hot and sweaty during the hike. It's hard physical work!! You have to be reasonably fit - and it had been a while since I'd been to the gym, so I was huffin and puffin like a grandma! And the ice is incredibly slippery... Even with spikes on my shoes, I managed to fall on my arse a few times. I'm a bit of a clutz...

I definitely recommend going on the 3/4 day hike... There was a full day opti on, but I reckon I would have died if I did that option! I would like to come back to the glaciers - next time I want to get a helicopter ride to Fox Glacier, we missed out on that one this time around. Fox Glacier looked slightly bigger than Franz Josef, but then again these thin

gs are both beastly huge anyway! And what really got me was these things used to be a lot bigger. Glaciers grow and retreat over time - apparently, Franz Josef is one of only a few glaciers that is actually growing. I hope that people will get to enjoy its natural beauty before climate change destroys the planet...

Franz Josef is such an amazing natural feature - the ice is sometimes so smooth it looks like glass. I couldn't resist having a bit of a taste - I was lucky my tongue didn't get stuck to the glacier!

More photos and stories about our trip to Wanaka and Queenstown coming soon!!!