Franz Josef

Hi, as promised here is the final instalment in the "When Clare met New Zealand" series of stories.

Well, after all our other hilarity in the South island (and once again, a zillion kilometres) we packed up and headed to Franz Josef. Now, Franz Josef, i have since found out, is one of the most dangerous places to live in new zealand - not because of crime or the glacier, but because of it's location directly on a major fault line. Earthquake central.

It's funny, we had been back 4 weeks and in the paper it was talking about earthquakes and how dangerous it is in Franz Josef (potentially - like if the big one happened) and it showed a photo of the main street and you can actually see a bulge under the road. Unfortunately for the people in Franz Josef (as if life wasn;t difficult enough) they decided to build the petrol station right on top of the bulge in the street. Mental.

Anyway, we had no earthquakes whilst down there thankfully but we did sign up to do the Glacier climb which was amazing.

Here's a wee bit about the glacier itself:

" From its origins high in the Southern Alps, the Franz Josef Glacier descends deep into the lush rainforest of Westland’s National Park, from a height of 2700m above sea level to only 240m in as little as 11 km, making it the worlds steepest and fastest flowing commercially guided glacier.

It is the rugged gradient of the Franz Josef Glacier that ensures our clients enjoy the most dramatic glacier scenery available to the general public anywhere in the world."

You basically leave early in the morning and do a one hour hike to the foot of the glacier - you then climb up the face in groups of about 10 with a guide. You then make your way pretty far up through the ice tunnels and stuff, stopping for lunch before descending.

It was really strange to be on such a big lump of ice that is apparently always moving but you can't feel it moving and it generally goes too slow to perceive.

If you ever get the chance to go on a glacier and wield an ice axe, I would highly recommend it and so would the people in the photo below........