We walked to the Franz Josef Glacer

Friday 31^st January

We've decided to stay another night in Franz Josef.  There isn't too much  to the town,a few bars and nice restaurants, and tour offices  for doing any type of sport going, flying, skiing, glacier walking, skydiving, you name it, they can do it here.

 

This morning we hiked up to the face of the Franz Josef Glacier, It took about an hour to get there, walking through the boulder fields to the glacier face, but absolutely amazing, you can really see the geology.

 

 

 

The glacier is receding at an alarming rate, and they marked where it was in 1989. The whole walk was marked with water falls on both sides. I can image it is amazing in Spring with the snow melt, but then you probably wouldn't want to be there as it is probably a torrents of water everywhere.

 

 

We wandered around town after that... can say it didn't take long, and had a coffee and in the afternoon we retreated to a thermal spa, opposite where we are staying for a couple of hours steaming in some warm water. Not quite in the same league as Hamner Springs, but nice. 

Aaaaah, needless to say my left have gone to mush and we sat by the camper in the evening, I cooked BBQ sausage sandwiches for dinner, and we had a glass or two of red wine , to celebrate our glacier experience.

Everything is amazing here, we are so high up and the camp is in a small rain forest, surrounded by steep hills. It started to drizzle at 5pm  and the hills in front of our van were covered in low cloud, which looked real spooky.  I bet it is stunning in the winter, when the snow comes in and the place turns into a ski resort.

Think it will be an early night as didn't sleep too well last night. We at last discovered the famous sand flies of South Island in force.

 

We got bitten whilst we were waiting for the helicopter, me slightly less so. Poor buggers  we are covered in bites and they itch like mad. We resorted to chemical warfare and are at the moment, covered in noxious stuff....just right.

Perhaps we ought to head inland tomorrow, away from the the sandflies.! Worse than mosquito's. Little sods, and that's being polite.