Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier, New Zealand

After spending a night at Nelson, I left early in the morning to go to Franz Josef Glacier. Once again, the transportation is almost as good an attraction as the destination. The views out the window of Paparoa National Park among other places were jawdropping and I wish I had spent a bit of time there. But we did get to see the infamous "Pancake Rocks" at a pitstop along the way. They were cool and here is a picture:



At a roadside cafe in the middle of nowhere, I got to try a Possum Pie. Meat pies are quite common here, as with most English-speaking countries other than the US, and Possums are an invasive pest here so someone thought of hunting and selling their meat. Well, it wasn't too bad actually. The meat tasted a bit like the dark meat of an odd chicken. But eventually, I got to the town of Franz Josef Glacier (which exists solely to serve the tourists coming here), where I went out for a few beers and pizza with some fun people I had met in Nelson. The next morning I went out to Franz Josef Glacier and hiked through some blue ice caves and 40 foot crevasses of blue ice. It was quite cool and even more cool for the fact that the glacier sits in a valley with a rainforest in it. So we hiked through rainforest in order to get to the glacier. It was a pretty unique experience, here are some pictures:



When I got back from the hike, I hopped on the bus to the town of Fox Glacier to spend a few more nights. This morning I slept in then rented a bike to ride out to Gillespies Beach, a 35 mile ride. It went through some amazing areas of first farmland with views of Mt. Cook and other large, snow-capped mountains to rainforest before getting to Gillespies Beach. The beach is black sand and smooth pebbles exactly perfect for skipping. Unfortunately, waves don't let the skips get far, I was only able to get about 4 or 5 in before they crashed into the next wave.



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Boring details:
I took the nakedbus from Nelson to Franz Josef, which left at 7:10am from just outside the iCenter in the center of town ($20). They stopped at several roadside cafes, a river view, and the pancake rocks for breaks. In Franz Josef, I stayed at Chateau Franz ($15 for dorms), a good hostel with about the same standards as all the other BBH hostels. No free breakfast here, but free soup in the evenings. It is just off the main road. Franz Josef Glacier Guides run a bunch of different hikes, I did the Full Day Glacier Experience ($90). Don't do the Half Day, it takes a while to hike up to the good ice so most of your day will be wasted. They provide gloves, hat, boots, socks, jacket, pants, and crampons. Don't expect quality though. While it isn't especially cold on the glacier, you may be cold because you don't move around too much, it is very stop-and-go. You return at about 4:30pm, which for me was plenty of time to catch the 5:05 Intercity bus to Fox Glacier because it leaves right outside of the Glacier Guiding building ($6). The Intercity bus drops off at many of the places around town, and will leave you about a block away from Ivory Towers, the best backpacker place around ($18 for dorms). It is just right around the corner and up the hill. The town is so small it is hard to get lost. They rent bikes for $2.50 an hour, again don't expect quality. It was about a 3 hour ride for me to and from Gillespies Beach, including about 45 min at the beach. It is moderately hilly and would be quite challenging for someone who is out of shape.