Day 2 in New Zealand (April 16) saw us taking a scenic drive from Arthur’s Pass to Franz Josef Glacier, for our morning Ice Explorer helihike.
Some things I learned that day:
- The French Shuffle is a technique for sidling up icy step/walls with crampons on.
- The Franz Josef Glacier oozes along at 3-5m/day.
- Full of Beans cafe has delicious Butter Chicken Pie. (Fusion food is not just a California thing).
- If you are fat, it may make squeezing through glacial crevasses a bit more challenging. (A honeymooning husband demonstrated this, to much laughter).
There are lots of companies doing glacier hikes, so we just picked the most advertised one, that also showed up in Lonely Planet. The clincher? When we called to make a reservation they had a new helihike (The Ice Explorer) they were offering, at about $265 vs $400 for their standard heli-hike. The tradeoff was less heli for more hiking. Since we wanted to hike on the glacier, but didn’t want to waste time hiking to the glacier (which in fact, was not possible due to high levels of melty glacial runoff), this was perfect.
Our guide for the day was Mike. While the rest of us stood swathed in waterproof jumpsuit things, Mike ran around in shorts and a polo shirt. Also a pickaxe. He attacked the ice the way some people attack large meals – with quiet, efficient enthusiasm. Mike’s pickaxe chunked out staircases, and filled treacherous crevasses with easily trampled bits of ice and snow.
The Franz Josef is one of the steeper glaciers in the world. I was imagining crawling around ice tunnels, but alas, had to settle for open air crevasses.
Still, seeing the contrast of GIANT BLOCK OF ICE against gray green mountainsides was impressive. Along with my first helicopter ride, a good thing to have done.
My favorite part, however, was probably laying down on the ice for a mini nap while waiting for our return copter. Our tickets came with free admission to the nearby Hot Pools. Sounds hokey, but was quite nice. Unlike Asian hot springs, bathing suits were the norm. Had quite a pleasant soak before continuing on to Fox Glacier for the night.
