Franz Josef Glacier Hike

After our amazing spur of the moment helicopter ride we got back on track to find the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers.  Our first stop was the Franz Josef Glacier.  We had hiked 3 and a half miles up the trail to the end of the trail where you can get as close to the glacier as they will let you.

Here's some stats on the Franz Josef Glacier:

Franz Josef Glacier is a 7.5 mile long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Together with the Fox Glacier  12 miles to the south, and a third glacier, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 980 ft above sea level.

The area surrounding the two glaciers is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site park. The river emerging from the glacier terminal of Franz Josef is known as the Waiho River.^[3]

They were excited to feel the water.  It was super cold water.

Our view from the first look out point.  

Brady thought this sign was so funny.  They have the funniest signs around here.  We guessed this means you can fall on the slippery rocks down the ledge behind us.

Some waterfalls along the trail

The pictures below were from when we were almost at the end of the trail.  We had a great view of the glacier.  We had to climb up a large hill of rocks.  Coming down was much harder.

We figured the White sign was falling ice and the black ones are falling rocks.

Below: Our view from the top of the trail... a zoom in of the glacier.  

If you look closely you can see large cracks in the ice made from the moving glacier.  A glacier is actually a river of ice.  It is slowly moving in the summer months.

On our way back down the trail we stopped at the waterfall that they had seen and had been dying to get closer to.

This is the water that was coming off of the glacier, not a stream from the waterfalls.  It is cloudy because of rock dust that is in the water from the glacier.  When you see cloudy water, you know it is straight off a glacier and is brain numbing cold!!  You don't get used to the water the longer your hand is in it... it stings more and more because it's so cold.

Heading back to the car... Such a cute picture of Ava and Brady hiking back.  The girls were great hikers!!