Day 9 - Franz Josef and Fox Glacier

We depart Christchurch and take a bus tour through the devastation on our way out of the city.  Collapsed building, churches, yellow tape, you name it we saw it.  A lot of Christchurch's buildings were made of brick and combine that with liquid faction and you had a recipe for disaster.

We head into the wide open country of New Zealand.  It's beautiful, dramatic, lush and green.  We pass through Arthur's pass on our way to the glaciers.  At Arthur's pass we stop at this little cafe and get out to grab lunch.  We are told there is a very aggressive bird here known as a Kea and we are not to feed it anything.  These Keas are huge I would say the size of a giant parrot and they are aggressive.  I witnessed a woman eating her sandwich and the Kea coming right up to her and ripping the sandwich right out of her hand.  I keep two hands on my food and watch the entertainment.

Lord Of The Rings Was Filmed Here:

Playing with my camera Aperature:

Looks like a postcard but that's the way NZ is:

Damn Kea watching me like a Hawk!

Several hours later and we arrive at our accommodations.  This place is backpackers paradise.  Half of it a hotel the other half a hostile.  The bar known as monsoon is a bustling place with people from all over the world.  English, French, Dutch, German, Aussie, people were representing.  We have a great dinner and then Bill and I decide to represent America in a friendly double's match of pool with two guys from England.  These guys had been on the table for quite some time so we knew we had a challenge.  Needless to say we brought our "A Game" and won.  Now the table was ours!  That is for a quick 10 more minutes as our game went down hill and we couldn't find the pocket (more like Bill couldn't find the pocket).  What I noticed however is how friendly the competition is.  Even though we were trying to win, it seemed more important to our challengers that they get to know us rather then try to beat us.  Very different from the states, but I like it.
We make an early night and head to bed.  We have an early morning date with a glacier that is still very much in jeopardy with the weather.  Before I can get to the next morning I must mention that Little Jake was Little Jake and again he decided to wake me up with turning the lights on.  This time Monsoon bar got the best of him and he was drunk.  I yelled Jake the lights!  His response, "Oh sorry you sleeping!" Yes Jake see you in the morning.
We get up and the weather has cleared.  YAY!  We are about to embark on the Fox Helihike which involves taking a helicopter that will drop you off on top of the glacier half way up.  I can hardly contain my excitement, this will be my first helicopter flight.  We arrive get signed up and head to the helipad where three red helicopters await me and my tour mates arrival.  They give us special boots for sticking to the ice that we put on along with jackets if we want them.  

I'm Excited This Heilcopter is Beautiful:

Okay one more Close-up!

We board the helicopter and we take off for a 10 minute flight up the mountain.  The views are ridiculous!  This glacier is huge with contrasting blue and white colored ice.  The glacier runs up a canyon several thousand feet with majestic waterfalls on both sides.  I'm filiming the whole way and the pilot does this crazy manuever where he does a 180 over the waterfall and he get an awesome view.  Finally we go in to land and we see several other people that look like ants from above squatting down so that the helicopter wind won't spray them with ice.  We get out, I'M ON A FREAKING GLACIER!  AMAZING!

Little Jake gets front row cause he is small:

Away he goes!

Eureka I'm on a freaking Glacier!

My new advertising campaign for northface!

Amazing Views!

The Roomates and Bill!

We watch the helicopter leave and now it's just us and this giant glacier.  Our guide takes us on this tour trek thru ice, glacier canyons, glacier pitfalls that go several miles down.  It's sunny and the colors are incredible.  The crampons on our boots are sticking so we trek on.  We come to this glacier cave and walk through it take a few photos.    We see waterfalls and glacier holes decending into an abyss.  If you've never seen a glacier before I strongly recommend you check one out.  

Don't Leave Us!

Waterfalls coming off of the Glacier:

Mountain Man Bill and Krista!

The Crew!

There's no Abominable Snow Man in here!

It's only Bill and Krista

We came we saw we conquered!

We head back to the pickup the helicopter picks us up and we make the flight back safely.  When I get out of the helicopter I stop a minute to reflect what I had just done and seen.  On a day like this it's hard not to believe that God didnt have a hand in this.  I will never forget this trek and sharing it with my tour mates.  It's on to Queenstown the Adventure capital of New Zealand. Go Big or Go Home!

Bye Glacier!