Day 9 • Franz Josef Glacier - Hokitika

With bright sunshine, we started the day with a hike to Franz Josef Glacier. Since we had booked a helicopter flight in the afternoon, we could only do the short tour. It's not as spectacular because you walk through the riverbed for a while and you're still about 750 meters away from the glacier at the destination. But no big deal, we still had the flight ahead of us. And you can't get any closer than that. ;-) The morning hike was definitely enjoyable. Maybe a little something about the glacier.... The glacier is currently 10 kilometers long and is located about 400 meters above sea level. It is located on the west side of the New Zealand Alps. The special thing about this glacier is that it is one of the lowest glaciers of medium width at this altitude. As everywhere in the world, the glacier ice is also retreating here. There were pictures on the track showing the retreat from 2008 to 2012. Disturbing. And yet the Franz Josef Glacier is apparently not so massively affected. After our hike, we had to wait for about an hour before taking the helicopter to the glacier. The flight was absolutely worth it! I was lucky enough to sit in the front and had the perfect view from the helicopter. Really cool! We landed directly on top of the mountain and were able to take some photos. Amazing scenery! After about 30 minutes, the fun was unfortunately over. Our tour then continued to Hokitika. Before we drove to our accommodation, we made a short detour to Hokitika Gorge. A riverbed where the water shines turquoise again... We think it's beautiful. ;-) The town of Hokitika is not exactly pretty. You can go to the beach, but it's much nicer on the Baltic Sea. Well, not everything can be super amazing. ;-) There is still one highlight in this town, namely the Glow Worm Dells. Here, the glow worms are supposed to hang in the rock crevices and emit a blue light. We'll see if we'll go there later. Otherwise, the tour will continue tomorrow towards the north to Abel Tasman National Park.