05/04 Heli-Hiking on Franz Josef Glacier

The sun is shining. A lucky day because half of the hikes are cancelled due to bad weather.

We went from Franz Josef Town to the glacier in a short helicopter flight. Before that, we were given weatherproof clothing. Our helicopter was occupied by 4 Germans, while the others had 6 Chinese passengers each. Yes, we should probably think about losing weight. The helicopters flew up and down continuously. When several arrived in formation, it reminded me a bit of war movies .

In groups, we walked for 2 hours on the ice field with crampons on our feet and a guide (whose Kiwi English we couldn't understand no matter how hard we tried, but he looked good) It was a beautiful experience.

On the way back, we took a short walk around Lake Matheson near Fox Glacier Town. The view of Mount Cook is supposed to be particularly good here. Unfortunately, it was covered in clouds. But we already saw it from the other side a few days ago...