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We drove through Mount Aspiring National Park, on the way to Franz Josef Glacier, which was really beautiful and very windy, which was a bit hairy with the campervan!
Franz Josef is set in Westland National Park, part of the Southern Alps. The alps were formed where the Pacific and Australian techtonic plates meet and grind together. The plates cut diagnolly through the South Island and Franz Josef - so there are often earthquakes there! When we arrived we had a walk through the rainforest, to get a glimpse of the glacier, which was perfectly refelected in Peter's Pool (the photo is great!).
The next day we headed out for our glacier hike. The glacier is the remaining winter snow that the summmer melt doesn't remove, due to the cool heights. Each year extra snow is added to the glacier and the weight packs it down and it turns to ice which oozes down the valley and eventually melts in the warmer temperatures. The glacier in Franz Josef (and the neighbouring Fox glacier) is unique as it can move up to 2.5m per day!! Where the average is usually 10 times less than that! The hike was a full day hike up high onto the glacier (a lot higher than we expected - when we looked back up from the ground we couldn't believe how far we'd climbed!). We wore Ice Tallonz (spikes on our shoes) to help with grip. It was pretty tough in places, particularly with the Ice Tallonz on, as it was like having heavy weights on our feet and we had to stamp our feet in the ice with each step, so our legs were aching by the end. But, as they say, no pain no gain! We had an amazing time, squeezing in tunnels and edging through blue ice caves. There were some scary bits too though..we heard lots of echoing bangs and chunks of ice broke off and fell into deep ice crevices and at one point the guides had to venture off to cut steep steps into a cave, while we waited surrounded by overhanging, creaking ice! We were amazed by the whole experience and would definitely do it all over again....when our muscles have recovered!
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