New Zealand - Barrytown to Franz Josef

Oh my God! The pain......the pain (that was me after the celebrations when it was time to get up and head off again on the journey to Franz Josef).

But sure enough we all managed to drag ourselves out of our comas and on to the bus by 7 (lots of miles to be covered today). Today the destination was Franz Josef - one of the 2 main glaciers in NZ, the other being the Fox Glacier which is just down the road or 'around the corner' as us Irish might say - for the rest of you that means a good hour or two down the road. I don't recall much conversation on the bus that morning - just the sweet music of a snoring symphony with the odd groan thrown in.

The journey took us past the by now familiar stunning scenery of the West Coast and on to a town called Hokitika which has one of the best jade carving centres in NZ (apparently the only place where you can carve yourself for free if you're lucky enough to find a bit of jade). And before I get any complaints I don't literally mean carving yourself - read on to the end of the sentence and it becomes clear! Lunch consisted of the healing properties of a pie or two and a big mug of tea - right as rain again and raring to go.....back to sleep.

A few hours later we arrived in Franz Josef - the town itself is tiny but my god the scenery is amazing (was surprised that I hadn't been sceneried out by now). Again Franz Josef is one of the big tourist things to do in NZ and something which you will always see in the guidebooks or ads if you've ever seen any. I had decided that I was going to do the heli-hike the next day so went off to pay for that and began to get a wee bit excited, I had never been in a helicopter before or on a glacier for that matter so this was going to be something to remember.

Below is again something which I have plagerised just for information purposes - it will give you an idea as to what the glacier is all about:

The spectacular Franz Josef Glacier descends to just 250 metres above sea level amidst the greenery and lushness of a temperate rainforest.

Of all the accessible temperate glaciers in New Zealand, the Franz Josef Glacier is easily the steepest and fastest moving.

While many glaciers world-wide have been retreating, the Franz Josef Glacier still flows almost to sea level, through a temperate rainforest of ancient podocarp trees and other evergreen species.

This combination of ice and temperate rainforest is a unique feature of New Zealand's glacier country, and is an ecosystem found nowhere else in the world.

South Westland is situated at 43.5 degrees south, an equivalent latitude to the south of France. Cannes, for example, is the same distance from the coast as Franz Josef, with mountains of similar altitudes. Obviously there are no glaciers that extend down to sea level in France, so why does it happen here?

Running through Franz Josef is the Alpine Fault. Along this faultline the Southern Alps have been pushed up, and continue to rise in close proximity to the ocean. The weather that flows on to the West Coast is forced to rise over the Southern Alps, thereby cooling and dropping most of its moisture as rain and snow. This process causes up to 30 metres of snow to fall on the neve (or catchment area of the glacier), every year.

Snow that is compacted on the neve forms blue glacier ice that is funnelled down the Waiho Valley. The ice flows under its own momentum, forming a 'river of ice'. Although the terminal face of the glacier is continually melting, this is replaced by glacier ice flowing down from the neve. This is aided by basal sliding, caused by a layer of water beneath the glacier which is formed by the weight of the ice pushing against the valley floor.

The glacier slides forward at rates up to 10 times faster than most valley glaciers, presenting the visitor with a spectacular and unique icefall of crevasses, pinnacles, ice caves and canyons.

OK - I hope you'll remember that!

So on to the heli-hike the next day......it was amazing! You get kitted out in talonz (claws that attach to special heavy duty leather boots) which are meant to keep you upright on the ice, and of course the good old sunscreen.

So on we get to the helicopter and away we went - the pilot swooping left to right and down close to the glacier, don't mind saying I had the old stomach in mouth feeling a couple of times but that was just the pilot having a laugh with us virgins. Helicopters are sooooooooo much better than aeroplanes.

Anyway, down we go onto the glacier and land about 3/4 of the way up - next on the agenda was a 2 hour hike around the ice. Our guide led us up and over and into parts of the ice which you'll never experience on a normal snow covered mountain - carrying an axe to cut steps in the ice so we could make our way across particularly tough bits. We did have a girl with us who cried the whole way as she was so scared - bloody pain in the backside - meant we had to move a lot slower - and then we had the ones at the back who didn't keep up because they were so snap happy and then blamed the guide for leaving them behind (they were about 30 secs behind the rest of us) but of course the moaning was because they too were peeing in their panties!

The glacier itself was truly beautiful - blue ice, blue pools and blue ice caves which you can climb through, made for a pretty picture or too let me tell you - I will try and post some at some stage if I can, promise!

Again something which I would highly recommend! Oh - and the helicopter on the way down was just as good as on the way up.