Franz Joseph Glacier

After Hokitika we made our way down to Franz Joseph Glacier so that we could do the ice walk that's recommended by so many people.

Franz Joseph is a nice little town, a bit like a Swiss Alpine ski resort town, where the sun shines and the air is crisp and you are surrounded by snow topped mountains.

We found a nice little campervan park right in town and ventured out for a few beers trying hard to avoid the Kiwi Experience crowd (no offence!) but not managing to because there were hundreds of them!!

The next day we were up early to go on our glacier walk. We got all kitted out in big boots and spikes and we were off.

The Franz Joseph is the fastest moving glacier in the world. At the moment it is advancing and moves between 1 to 5 metres a day. Apparently that's quite fast.

Everyday, loads of guides go up to the glacier and spend hours digging steps into it so us tourists can climg up it. We did the half day tour which was just enough for me. It's a really huge mound of ice falling down the mountain and there are some reall deep crevesses in it which were a little scarey (for me!). It's quite hard climbing up and down it and the spikey things on your shoes were really heavy so despite it being really cold we were all quite hot by the time we finished.

It was a good day and really quite tiring but a good experience that we are glad we did.

That night we stayed at Foz Glacier but decided not to climb that, one glacier was enough!

Next stop Wanaka and Queenstown