Fox Glacier - Franz Josef Glacier

8th - 9th Feb

The route from the south to the north of New Zealand passes directly by the glaciers.

First at Fox Glacier - but the storm completely destroyed the path there - so we didn't see the glacier ourselves... instead, we treated ourselves to a hostel with a whirlpool in the evening (Ok, that was actually more of a stroke of luck that the whirlpool was included^^ we just took the first/cheapest hostel! hehe)

The next day we continued towards Franz Josef Glacier (which was named after the Austrian emperor).

We knew it was only 25km to cover... but these were over 3 huge 'hills' - unfortunately, 2 spokes suddenly broke at the beginning of the first climb on Mex's bike.

Oh no! So we drove back to the village to look for a bicycle shop. Of course, in vain - the next one is 160km away in Hokitika (3 WHOLE DAYS FOR US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

But we couldn't continue with two broken spokes - so there was only one solution: I (Pezi) had to take all the load at the back!

What was a pretty chill day for Mex after Franz Josef was pretty tough for me! But the motto is to persevere!

Franz Josef was a pretty touristy place, but still nice. There are a lot of helicopter rides offered to the glacier (and for skydiving), so it was pretty noisy in the town.

We also took a short hike to Franz Josef Glacier, if you can call it that (it was more of a walk for Austrian standards). It was really beautiful!