Helicopter Ride and Hiking on the Glacier

Tuesday June 13th – Woke up to a beautiful clear day! Yea, the heli hike is on! We packed up and walked into town for a little breaky. I hit the internet café to see if Sue had contacted me yet. Remember, she had gone to Kaikoura when we went to Greymouth and with all the bad weather I was worried that she might get delayed and miss the glacier trip. As it turned out her dolphin trip had been cancelled the same as our cave tour. She had made it to Greymouth the previous night and ironically stayed in the same room we did at “Global Village”. She planned to make it to Franz Josef in time for the trip, and in fact when we walked across the street we found her!
We checked into the helicopter tour place and they directed us to the “boot shack” across the road. There they provided us with everything we would need for the trip; wool socks, hiking boots, jackets, gloves, hats, etc. We geared up (yes Allison, I wore someone else’s socks and boots!) and got our safety speech. Then we boarded the helicopter! It was really loud and we all wore the headphones through which the pilot could talk to us. There were 6 of us and the pilot and the trip lasted about 10 minutes. The pilot took us along the glacier and gave us some basic information about the glacier. Riding in a helicopter was pretty cool. The view was awesome and I did really well until the pilot started to swoop from side to side of the glacier to give us better views. At that point I started to feel sick. This comes as no surprise to those of you who know me well; I get motion sick REALLY easily. I managed not to disgrace myself and was thankful when the ride was over. The helicopter dropped us about midway up the glacier and our guides, Tim and Rich, were waiting for us. They showed us how to put on the “Ice Talonz” which are the spikes that attach onto the bottom of the boots and grip the ice. Tim instructed us how to walk and hopefully not fall, and we were off. It was so wild, and we kept grinning at each other and saying, “We’re on a glacier!”
The first thing I managed tro do was drop my camera and bend the lens horribly. I was pretty bummed, I had bent over to adjust my boot and the strap slipped right off my mitten and slammed into ice as hard as concrete. Thank goodness Grant had brought my mom’s camera and we had it on the hike. Don’t know if I’ll get mine to work ever again.
We walked through some crevasses and cave-like structures and learned interesting facts about glaciers in general and the Franz Josef in particular. So here is your lesson of the day;
Franz Josef Glacier is about 7,000 years old and extends 12km from its three feeder glaciers in the Alps. The terminal face is just 19km from the sea and only 5km from town. Both Franz Josef and Fox glaciers cut thru the valley and flow into a temperate rain forest. While many glaciers world-wide have been retreating, these glaciers still flow almost to sea level making them unique relics of the last Ice Age. The nerve or catchment area of the glaciers get about 30 meters of snow each year, this high snowfall pushes the ice down the valley at very high rates, almost 10 times faster than most valley glaciers. Here is the Maori legend of Franz Josef; Hine Hukatere, an adventurous Maori maiden who loved mountaineering above all other pastimes, frequently persuaded her lover, Tuawe, to accompany her on escapades into the hills. On one such expedition the unfortunate Tuawe, who had never been as fond of climbing as his sweetheart, slipped near the top of what is now the Franz Josef Glacier, and plunged to an early death. Hine’s tears, great in volume, were frozen by the gods as a memorial to her grief – frozen in the Glacier Ka Roimata O Hine Hukatere- Tears of Avalanche Girl.
It was FANTASTIC! The helicopter ride back was shorter and thankfully not as bumpy or swoopy. We ate a hearty luch then hit the road. Because we didn’t leave until about 3:30, we drove only about 2.5 hours to a coastal town named Haast. This is a tiny town with a couple of bars and hotels/hostels. We uploaded our photos and turned in early.