Franz Josef Glacier

On to Franz Josef Glacier

Today started out a little ominous.  We got all packed and ready to go, and the car wouldn’t start.  I know there was nothing left on, but I think the battery cable may have gotten loose.  Anyway, a friendly service man came out, jumped the car, and we were on our way.  We were going to stop at a hot springs we got directions to just outside of Harihari, but decided to keep going since we got started late.  We were able to play a few games of cribbage in which John beat me every time, before we got on the road. 

Now we are seeing the mountains!  We arrived at Franz Josef, checked the i-site area, and the girl sent us to Fox Glacier to see Mt. Cook since the clouds were still pretty scarce.  We got there and Mt. Cook peeked out a couple of times, but we were also able to see a few other mountains.  These mountains stand between 11,000 and just over 12,000 feet and we are standing pretty much at sea level!  

Then we headed back to Franz Josef, checked in our hostel and headed out to do a few hikes.  We were able to go to a lookout area and also to the termination point of the glacier.  It’s receding quickly!  We came back into town and booked a backpack up the Copland Track for tomorrow night!  We’ll walk in 18 km tomorrow, sleep in a hut, hopefully sit in the hot springs there, and then head back another 18 km on Sunday.  We’ll probably stay in Fox Glacier on Sunday night, get up early to see the sunrise from Lake Matheson.  We’ll have to hike in a bit, but then we should hopefully get a good glimpse of Mt. Cook.  I also want to stay up late one night to see the Southern Cross, but haven’t been able to yet.  We are pretty exhausted every night!  We’re packing our backpacks tonight and we’ll get on the road early so we can hit the hike around 9:00!