Just a quick explanation for why my postings went quiet for a week or so…turns out getting a solid Internet connection on the west coast of the south island can be a challenge. Today is March 15^th (14^th in Ottawa, as we are a day ahead) and we are in Wanaka. Hope to get totally caught up with the blog over the next day or two but in the mean time, I have put up four postings this morning covering the last seven or eight days. More to come!

Wednesday Mar 11

Today we head into glacier country as we approach the area with the highest mountains in the southern alps. As the highway works its way south there are two opportunities to visit glaciers, first at the Franz Joseph Glacier and a bit further south, the Fox Glacier. We decided to head for Franz Joseph. We still had about 30 km to reach our destination when we decided we needed a nature break. There were signs for a rest stop that took us off the highway up a short side road to a lovely spot beside a melt water fed river – with a good flow. Coincidentally there was a helicopter tour operator at that location. After our bathroom break, we were watching the lone helicopter pilot refuel before taking off without any tourists. Just as we were about to get back in the van, someone from the heli-tour company approached us about doing a tour on Thursday morning…they had two seats left for the nine o’clock flight. He offered us a discount! We took his card and told him we would consider it and get back to him. After our stop it was a short drive into the town at Franz Joseph Glacier where we found an excellent campground with amazing views of the mountains. After a brief chat with the receptionist at the camp we picked our site and then headed to the trail head for the short hike up the valley to view the Franz Joseph glacier. In late February there was a lot of rain in this area and further south as well. Because of that the river flowing out of the glacier has done some flooding so we were not able to approach the glacier as close as would normally be the case. The hike was stunning all the same and the clouds cleared enough that we could see the peaks above the glacier. Lots of helicopters going up and down the valley overhead. After our short hike, we returned to town to check out the shops and potentially book a flight for tomorrow. In talking with the receptionist at the campsite, she recommended an airplane tour instead of the helicopter option. It was a bit cheaper and was almost a hour in length which was again, longer than the heli-tour. We found the plane tour operator and booked our trip for the morning – weather permitting. We finished our afternoon with a coffee, before heading back to camp for happy hour!

Small heli gettting ready to fly off into the alps

our campsite at Franz Joseph Glacier

Franz Joseph glacier from the bottom of the valley

Franz Joseph glacier

Lots of helicopter tours up the valley

back at camp getting ready for supper

the view from our campsite looking up to the alps close to Mt Cook

flower pots?