Most people stay in Franz Josef for around 1 or 2 days. We arrived in Franz Josef having booked in for 3 nights at our holiday park. We knew this was a little bit longer than we should be staying, but our helihike was booked for the day after our 3rd night and we figured we could find things to do. Our first feel of Franz Josef was that it had a typical alpine resort air about it. We knew we were going to enjoy it!

Our holiday park was set in rainforest and had a lot of accommodation, not just campsites, so it was very busy from our arrival. It had a restaurant and bar attached to it, which is very rare and the facilities were great. As I mentioned in my previous blog, the night of our arrival we met a Danish couple and their son, had some drinks and ate dinner with them on our communal picnic bench. We had a lovely evening and have spent a lot of time with them since which we’ve enjoyed.

The next day we walked up to the terminal of Franz Josef Glacier. It was about a 20 minute drive out of town to the glacier and then it was a 1 and a half hour return walk up to the terminal. Walking along the path was easy and along the way we saw beautiful waterfalls and many different view points of the glacier. It was so impressive seeing the glacier appear from within the valley as we walked closer. We were very lucky with the weather and got some amazing views of the glacier. Franz Josef Glacier has been retreating since 2008 and having shown my Mum some photos that we took of the glacier she said it was very obvious how much it has shrunk since their last visit. Another sign of global warming unfortunately.

We walked back to the car and drove into town. On bookme we had managed to find a deal to go to the Kiwi centre in Franz Josef to have a backstage tour of their facilities. The centre has a very successful program that is supporting the Rowi kiwi population. To call it a breeding program would be incorrect. The team at the kiwi centre, along with the support of the Department of Conservation, will collect the kiwi eggs from the burrows a few weeks after they have been laid. These eggs are then taken to the centre and incubated and the chicks looked after for around 3 months. These chicks are then taken to predator free habitats around New Zealand for the next year or so until they are large enough to defend themselves. So, what are they defending themselves against? Kiwi’s number one predator is the stoat, an animal introduced to New Zealand to originally control the rabbit population. Guess what? The stoat did not control the rabbit population and they also have been decimating the kiwi population by eating their chicks when they are too young to product themselves. The Rowi kiwi population got so low that they created this program to support them and it is working VERY well.

While we were at the centre we were told about the role of this program, the biology of the kiwi and about the different species that are found. It was very informative and we were glad we went. During our behind the scenes tour we saw 2 kiwi chicks, 25 and 27 days old. They were so unbelievably cute! They would be heading off to their predator free environments soon ready to begin the process of getting large enough to go back into the wild, at around 1 year old. After we had finished the tour we went around the centre which is pretty small, but very well presented. They have 3 Rowi kiwis in their nocturnal house and we spent a good 20 minutes watching them sniff out food in the leaf litter. We couldn’t take any photos of them, but were so happy we got to observe them. We have asked a lot of people we have met if they have seen any in the wild and we haven’t met anyone yet who has. Pretty elusive animals! The centre also has a lot of information about glaciers and the local environment which we enjoyed reading.

The weather started to change so for the rest of the afternoon we sat in a cafe, had an unbelievably tasty burger and watched movies.

The next day, the weather was awful!!! We were getting a bit worried about our heli hike, but the weather was meant to get better the next day. We had a very lazy morning and then decided to go check in with out heli hike company and see what was going on. They said that all of the tours for that day had been cancelled, but tomorrow was looking better. Fingers crossed. As part of our heli hike we were entitled to entrance to the Glacier Hot Pools, which is 3 hot pools maintained at 36, 38 and 40 degrees C. We spent a good 2 hours in here discussing everything and anything. A few business ideas came to us whilst in the pools, so who knows whether these may come to fruition one day.

Feeling lovely and relaxed we drove down to Fox Glacier to walk up to the terminal. Most people will visit Franz Josef and then Fox separately, but because we had such a long time in Franz Josef we were doing it all based from Franz. The weather had cleared a bit and we headed off on our walk. It’s meant to be a 1 hour return walk, but when we got there we saw a sign saying they were doing maintenance work on the path and we would only be able to get 1km away from the terminal. Not great! We felt bad for Fox Glacier. Hardly anyone was there, it looked in a far worse condition (it has been retreating at an even greater rate than Franz Josef and for far longer) and no one could even see it properly because of the maintenance work. The valley up to Fox Glacier was really impressive though and we were still glad we went and saw it.

The next day was the day of our heli hike. The weather had cleared and was looking pretty good. We didn’t have to check in until 11:25 so we headed back down towards Fox Glacier to take advantage of the good weather and complete the circuit walk of Lake Matheson. Lake Matheson is an ale coloured lake which on a calm day can produce perfect mirror images of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook. There was a little bit of wind, but we got some amazing shots and the views were just beautiful. The whole area was very surreal, it didn’t quite seem real to be seeing such beautiful scenery. While we were there we were able to have a skype conversation with some of the Dowells, Pickerings, Overetts and Roddis’ which was lovely. Thanks for ringing us guys!

Filled with optimism we headed back to Franz Josef to check in for our heli hike. As we approached Franz Josef though we could tell that the weather was very different here. The valley was full of cloud and we were getting worried. We got to the heli hike centre and they told us that they hadn’t made a decision yet as to whether we would be going. After about an hour wait, we were told it was cancelled. Filled with disappointment, we decided to ask if they could rebook us in for the next day. As there was limited availability when we booked about 10 days before, we weren’t hopeful. Surprisingly, they were able to fit us in for the next day at 9:45am. SOOOOO HAPPY!!! All that had to happen now was for the weather to get better.

Disappointed, we decided we needed to find something to do for that afternoon and rechecked back in for our 4th night in Franz Josef. The weather was rubbish, we didn’t want to walk around in the rain, but we found another amazing bookme deal. Quad biking. We had ruled Quad biking out previously as it was quite expensive and we could do it in the UK, but this deal was way too good to pass up on. The deal allowed us to share 1 quad bike, paying 1 adult driver price and 1 adult passenger price, but swap as often as we wanted during the ride, and all at a 30% discount to advertised. The best bit was,we only had to wait 2 hours before we could go.

We checked in and were given endless safety briefings. We were getting worried that the whole trip was going to be dull, following behind each other in lines making it unable to have fun. Lets just say… we were wrong. The whole experience was so amazing! We had the best 2 hours zooming around on our quad bike over rocks, through mud and rainforest, going down steep drops and splashing through rivers. It was GREAT. We did see the glacier in the distance, but the weather was still pretty bad. Most people, like us, will go quad biking in Franz Josef if the weather is bad. I hope that other people don’t just see this as a wet weather activity as it was so brilliant. We wrote a trip advisor review immediately, which tells you how much we loved it. At one point Simon and I were laughing so hard that we nearly fell off the bike. We had fun trying to get each other muddy zooming through the puddles and I had fun telling Simon off for going to fast over rocks. Just great. Please remind us to show you the gopro footage when we get home!

Feeling a little bit better than we did after the heli hike was cancelled, we settled in for the night at the campsite. Simon met a British guy from Wiltshire while we were cooking and we went and had a couple of drinks with him in the bar and kept all of our body parts crossed (as did everyone on fb for us) for the next day.

The next day, there was sun. YES!!! The next question was, will it last? It did!!! We checked in for our heli hike, finally making it further than we did the day before. We filled in all of the health and safety paperwork, got weighed ready for our helicopter transfer, and got issued all of our hiking gear. Our guide for the heli hike was a girl from Yorkshire, so Simon and her had fun talking about Yorkshire-isms whilst we got ready and also on the glacier itself.

We started walking towards the helipad and it was only then that it hit me that we were actually going to be able to go up. I think deep down I had resigned myself to it not happening, but as they called me forward to sit in the FRONT of the 6 seater helicopter and the pilot started to play electro-trance music for us to listen to, I got pretty giddy with excitement. The scenic flight in itself was just so amazing and memorable. We were getting closer and closer to this breathtaking natural formation and then… we were landing on it! The whole ride was over in about 5 minutes, but I don’t think either of us will ever forget it.

As soon as we were on the glacier we were rushed away from the helicopter and asked to put our crampons on our boots. Luckily, we were both star pupils and were able to remember how to do it from our briefing. I think for the next 5 minutes while we waited for the other half of our hiking group, our jaws just hit the floor as we looked around at this maze of white and blue ice. The sun was shining and all we could see around us was ice and mountains. Anyone who is reading this blog and thinking of going to New Zealand. You have to do this!!! We are still buzzing from this experience days later.

For the next 3 hours we walked around the glacier, moving through tight crevices, crawling through caves, tasting glacial water and pinching ourselves. We learnt so much about the glacier during our tour and both enjoyed hearing the Maori formation story. I have linked the story here for anyone who would like to read it. http://www.franzjosefglacier.com/social/blog/the-story-of-ka-roimata-o-hinehukatere/

The 3 hours flew by and it was time to get our helicopter back down to reality. Simon had a great view of the valley and the glacier on the way back. The pilot did a very steep decent at one point, which felt a lot like a rollercoaster. We were both laughing and enjoying ourselves though. I can honestly say we were flying high and smiling for the rest of the day, we still are. The scenic flights of the glacier, which last about 30 minutes, cost around the same as the hike and to me it is no question. If you are lucky enough to be able to walk, go for it! We WILL be doing it again in the future. Thank you so much for anyone who contributed to our honeymoon fund at our wedding. We paid for this trip with some of that money. You have honestly allowed us to have some truly magical memories and we will be forever grateful.

After the heli hike it was time to leave Franz Josef. We feel like experts of the area now having completed most of the activities on offer. As we had lost a day with the delay of the heli hike, we were going to be driving 4 hours down to Haast and through to Wanaka. We still made 2 stops on this journey and I will talk about those on the next blog.