The activity I had probably been most looking forward to in the South Island was exploring the Franz Josef Glacier. It was totally unlike anything I’d ever done before. It was also the most expensive activity I did not only in the South Island but in the entirety of New Zealand, coming in at about $449.
It’s funny how your feelings about money operate while you’re backpacking. Almost $500 for a helicopter ride and glacier hike? Of course, this valuable experience outweighs my need to support myself a few extra weeks. $3 for a jar of pasta sauce? Um, can you not tell I’m a vagrant living on mi goreng noodle packets and cleaning a hostel for dorm room accommodation? I’ll just eat my pasta with whatever random condiments and spices I’m carrying around at the moment, thanks. If you haven’t had cheesy tortellini with Caesar dressing and hot sauce, I swear you are missing out.
Anyway, I don’t at all regret my decisions to live like a vagabond 99% of the time, because it let me afford the big things like glacier hiking. Franz Josef was well worth the cost.
The Kiwi Experience’s hostel of choice in Franz Josef was the Rainforest Retreat, so that’s where we stayed. The name is slightly misleading. It is surrounded by trees, but if you’re expecting year-round tropical weather, you’re very mistaken. You’re in the mountains. I did the South Island from April to May, so it was just coming into New Zealand winter. It was very chilly certain places, Franz Josef being one of them.
The hostel was alright. The dorm rooms were very basic, but the worst part was that I was freezing all the time! The rooms weren’t so bad, but the doors at the ends of the hallway were always open to the outside and it was so, so cold. I dreaded having to leave the room to use the bathroom. Also, the bar and kitchen and laundry facilities were in separate buildings you had to go outside to reach.
The bar was pretty decent though, and they had games on most nights. There was a killer pool competition and a rock paper scissors competition on during the time I was there, both of which offered free tour prizes to the winners. One evening was also an all-you-can-eat pizza night (as a backpacker, I was very disappointed in myself at only being able to eat 6 or 7 slices- unlimited food is a rarity!).
Franz Josef is one of Kiwi Ex’s built-in two night stops so that everyone has time for the glacier. I opted to stay in the room on the first night and sleep instead of joining everybody at the bar since I wanted to be awake and not hungover for the glacier, but that was a dumb decision since the glacier hike ended up being cancelled the following morning due to weather.
We walked to the shop at 8:45 and were told it was too windy for the hike, so it had been pushed back to the afternoon. I’d signed up for a horse trek that afternoon, so I then had to cancel that, but in the end, they cancelled the glacier hike completely for the day, so I had to call back and rebook my horse trek after all.
I was panicking a little though because I did not want to miss out on the Ice Explorer tour, so we ended up pushing our bus back for another two days just to make sure we’d have time for it in case there was inclement weather again the following morning. It turned out we could have kept our bus and still made the tour, but oh well. Better to be safe I guess. Not like I was on a strict time schedule.
The horse trek was really scenic and enjoyable! There were only four of us on the trek (plus the guides), and they matched us up with horses based on our levels of experience once we arrived at the stables. I was partnered with a friendly white appaloosa named Apache. My only small complaint was that the walk was a bit slow for the most part, but only two of us were experienced riders while the other two were beginners. There wasn't a lot of real "riding" so much as the horses following one another.
We went through the rainforest and along a couple paths before coming out to this gorgeous spot with snowy mountains in the background and took a photo with our horses in the water. Then we climbed up onto the rocky incline there, and they let the other girl with riding experience and me have some fun. The other two went up ahead, then she and I were allowed to let our horses take off at a full gallop to catch up. They were so excited to go that it was hard to keep them still until we had the go ahead! It was a rush.
We were out for about two hours in total, then fed our horses some carrots back at the stables before heading back to our hostel.
The following morning we were finally able to do the Ice Explorer heli-hike at the glacier. We checked in at the shop where they gave us all the gear we would need including black over-trousers (we were all told to just wear shorts underneath), blue coats which I wore over my own two hoodies and thermal shirt, black hats, mittens, thick socks, and hiking boots.
Once we were prepared, we walked over to the landing site for the helicopter. I was buzzing! I was literally jumping up and down, I was so excited for my first ever helicopter ride (you'd think since I'm afraid of flying in planes that a helicopter would make me nervous, but weirdly no).
Finally after watching a few different groups get picked up and swept away, it was our turn. They even put me in the front seat! We put our headsets on and took off. It was so cool. The views were awesome, and we flew up through the mountains and landed on the glacier.
After stepping off the helicopter, we quickly clipped crampons onto our boots because we were already sliding all over the place. We met our guide who very coincidentally was from Bedford, Ohio (I swear you don't actually know how small the world is until you travel) who led our hike and filled us in on the history and geology of the glacier along the way. We also saw another tour doing ice climbing which seemed like an even more adventurous alternative to the hike.
We spent a few hours on the glacier, and it was such an unforgettable experience. We were walking between gigantic ice mountains, crawling through tunnels, and pulling ourselves up steep walls of ice with ropes and stairs that have been chopped in with an axe. You could even drink the water streaming down the glacier. There were rocky mountains on either side. I've never seen or done anything else like it.
They even trusted us with a pickaxe! Clearly using it responsibly.
Honestly, it's hard to describe the whole thing except that it was incredible. This is one of those cases where photos will do the experience more justice than words will.
We took the chopper back down and dropped off our gear back at the shop. Most of our group left on the Kiwi bus that afternoon, but since we'd switched onto the next bus, we were still stuck in Franz Josef for another two days.
On the bright side, our Ice Explorer tour included free passes to the Glacier Hot Pools down the road, and since we weren't on that bus, we were able to go that night.
The pools were at this spa in the outdoors surrounded by rainforest. There were three hot pools- the Pool of Calmness at 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 F), the Pool of Tranquility at 38 C (100.4 F), and the Pool of Serenity at 40 C (104 F). There was steam just pouring off of them.
It was such a relaxing way to unwind after a long day, especially being so achy from the hike and riding the day before. We stayed for three whole hours just enjoying them. They had this dreamlike quality about them being so quiet in a misty haze.
The next two days waiting around were extremely uneventful, but we met out new crew from the Kiwi Experience bus we'd be joining that rolled in. It included a lot of wild partying Brits, and while I didn't get super close with anyone from the bus, we had a few good nights out as a group over the next week or so.
So in conclusion, much like the Waitomo Caves in the North Island, Franz Josef Glacier is definitely the South Island's must-do tour. It's such a cool, unique activity, and since the glacier is slowly disappearing, I would recommend doing it in the near future. They've already shut down hikes from the bottom (hence the need for a helicopter now) due to melting.
For now though, I was off to Wanaka, a surprisingly fun one night stop before the madness that is Queenstown. All of that coming up soon.
Comments