Glacier Country

Franz Joseph

There wasn’t much time to hang around. I’d booked a helicopter flight for the afternoon to take us up to the glaciers.

The flight we booked was supposed to take us to Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier, Tasman Glaciers, the Southern Alps and the Main Divide, Mount Cook, and Mount Tasman. However, due to high winds, we couldn’t fly over Mount Cook. The consolation prize was a hefty discount on the price—that was fine by me.

Here’s a video of our helicopter coming into land. They don’t hang around much. A tried-and-tested process involves chucking out the passengers, refuelling the aircraft, putting the new passengers in, and up you go.

We struck lucky with the seating arrangements. There’s three to a row on this helicopter.

And up we are.

The pilot had a photo printer in the back of the helicopter, so he could print out your photos if you wanted them for a modest fee. Even I bought them.

We chatted with the driver afterwards. He told us that he emigrated from Auckland for a better lifestyle. Having been to Auckland, I understand what he means—there’s nothing wrong with it, but it is frenetic compared with here.

He also said that it never gets really cold here. I checked that claim out on t’internet, and, you know, he is absolutely right. Despite all that snow and ice up in those hills, the town has an average temperature of 8 degrees in the coldest month. Who’d have thought it? And it has an average temperature of 15 degrees C in the summer.

Westland Tai Poutini National Park

The access point to walk around the Westland Tai Poutini National Park was just a short drive from our campsite, and stunning scenery was everywhere.

When there is no wind, Lake Matheson perfectly reflects Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. Not today, it didn’t.

And now we are going over another hill to Wanaka, Queenstown and then more wine tasting.