Franz Josef Glacier

...and this is one. The Franz Joseph Glacier is about 12 km long and together with Fox Glacier and the surrounding area has been designated a World heritage site .

The Franz Joseph Glacier was named after the famous Austrian Emperor of the same name in 1865by an Austrian explorer but its Maori name; Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere means the tears of Hinehukatere which is a much more poetic name I feel. It is particularly interesting as it comes ...
...and froze to form the Franz Joseph glacier. The river emerging from the glacier at the end of the Franz Josef today is known as the Waiho River.

THE ANTICIPATION

One of the highlights of our trip to New Zealand was going to be a helicopter flight up on to the Franz Joseph Glacier. We had been looking forward to this from the time we arrived in New Zealand but the only problem was that if the weather was not good then the ... more

WHERE IS THE GLACIER?

In New Zealand’s south Island on the West Coast is a real gem known as Westland National Park, a very special area where two permanent glaciers come down to meet a lush green temperate rainforest at about 300 metres above sea level. There are only a few places in the world where two contrasting bio geographical phenomena meet and this is one. The Franz Joseph Glacier is about 12 km long and together with Fox Glacier and the surrounding area has been designated a World heritage site .

The Franz Joseph Glacier was named after the famous Austrian Emperor of the same name in 1865by an Austrian explorer but its Maori name; Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere means the tears of Hinehukatere which is a much more poetic name I feel. It is particularly interesting as it comes from a local legend which tells that Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to come climbing with her. However Wawe was not such an experienced climber as Hinehukatere and one day an avalanche swept Wawe to his death. Hinehukatere was of course, broken hearted and her tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the Franz Joseph glacier. The river emerging from the glacier at the end of the Franz Josef today is known as the Waiho River.

THE ANTICIPATION

One of the highlights of our trip to New Zealand was going to be a helicopter flight up on to the Franz Joseph Glacier. We had been looking forward to this from the time we arrived in New Zealand but the only problem was that if the weather was not good then the helicopters would not fly. As it had been raining almost non-stop since we left Lake Wanaka on the way from Queenstown, we were getting increasingly concerned that we would miss our exciting flight. The night before we were due to fly was extremely wet in Franz Joseph town and we had got soaked just going about 50 yards down the road for a meal so it was not looking good.

FOX GLACIER

We had a few stops on the way for comfort breaks and meals and then we arrived at Fox Glacier where we got out and walked to the glacier in the pouring rain. It was really grey and miserable so you could not see very much at all. There were chunks of ice floating down the river but you couldn’t get too close as there had been daily rock falls recently and they had pulled back the viewing point. It was a huge glacier but looked dirty like snow that had been cleared off a mucky road and in the rain was less impressive.

FRANZ JOSEPH TOWNSHIP

We left Queenstown for Franz Joseph township where we were only staying one night specifically for the opportunity of seeing both the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers and flying over and landing on the Franz Joseph Glacier in a helicopter. Franz Josef Township is a small village with approximately 330 inhabitants located approximately 5 km away from the glacier. It is basically a service area for tourists visiting the glacier as up to 2,000 people stay overnight during the main season. There are a few hotels and hostels and also a number of restaurants and shops but not much else.

We arrived at our hotel which was the “Franz Joseph “hotel in the Tui wing. We have a nice room decorated in greys and blacks with a walk in wardrobe and storage room. The bathroom is small with a shower and nice toiletries but no bath. It is a ski hotel in the season so there was plenty of storage for ski gear and clothes and there were laundry facilities with dryers too.

We gathered our thoughts and then went to eat at the “Blue Ice” restaurant. There were not a huge number of restaurant options in this town and this restaurant was recommended as having good food. It was so busy we had to sit outside despite the rain – it was covered but still a bit damp but the meal was good. My other half enjoyed Lamb rump and I had grouper – both were very tasty and well presented but as it started to rain more heavily and we were sitting outside it was not that pleasant so we didn’t hang around much longer and returned to the hotel.

We were up by 7am in case the rain cleared up enough for our helicopter flight onto Franz Joseph glacier. A real bonus from my husband’s point of view was that we were offered a complimentary breakfast at the hotel because of the awful weather and the possibility that we might not be able to have our flight. We went down to enjoy our freebie breakfast which was very nice – lots of fruit and fruit juice then cereals, yogurt and then cooked stuff as well, this was especially exciting as this was the only included breakfast that we had had throughout our tour of Australia and new Zealand.

We were still hoping that the helicopter flight would go but as it then started raining we thought we were sunk. We were leaving at 9.30 and our guide, Peter had been down to see if there was any likelihood of a flight but until we were on the coach at 9.30 it seemed bleak but then suddenly a tiny bit of blue sky started to show and the helicopter flight company said if we held on until 10 o’ clock then there might be a chance so we did. Some people on the coach were not happy but we didn’t care as we had come all this way for a helicopter flight and we were prepared to wait as long as we could to have the chance of flying.

At 10am they said it was okay and that they would fly the helicopters so off we went to the office. We checked in and went down to the heli pad in about 10 minutes.
We were with two other people in our helicopter and the chap we were put with decided he wanted the front seat as he had a private pilot’s license (this couple were the sort that always had to have a reason to have the front seat or the window or the room with the view etc) but luckily the person in charge put my husband in there for the journey up to the glacier.

THE HELICOPTER FLIGHT

It was a pretty amazing experience flying up the glacier and we seemed to me to be pretty close to the rocks or glacier at times. We landed on the Franz Joseph glacier and had about 8 minutes on the glacier to take photos. We could not wander off too far as the pilots were keeping an eye on the weather in case it turned and if that had happened we would have been hurried into the helicopter and returned. We took loads of photos and watched one lady dancing and singing ‘I’m on top of the World looking down on creation!’ Then we were off again. This time the annoying guy had sweet talked the pilot into letting him sit up front but my husband had the left hand window seat – all of us had a pretty good view as there were only 4 of us as passengers.

We flew over to the Fox Glacier and the pilot had told us that sometimes there is a view of Mount Cook but as the clouds were coming down again we didn’t see Mt cook but we saw the glaciers and came very close to waterfalls and rocks cliffs and all in all it was very special. It is quite unnerving at times being in a helicopter as you go very close to cliff edges and turn virtually on the spot as well as tipping forward at times. I had to keep telling myself that these pilots were expert and did this several times a week in order to keep myself calm.

Once we were back in Franz Joseph Town we went to pay for our flight and the photo of us taken by the pilot on the glacier then we rushed to get a couple of photos of the township in the sunshine before we made our way towards Arthur’s Pass to get the Tranz Alpine train back to Queenstown.

WAS IT WORTH THE WAIT AND COST?

Yes indeed it was, it was slightly scary, very exciting and an experience I would not have liked to have missed. To stand on a glacier wearing just a jumper and normal clothes having been flown up there by helicopter was a very ‘once in a lifetime’ experience and certainly one i will probably not have the chance to do again. If you are in south island and have the chance to experience this then I would definitely recommend doing it. The cost was approximately £100 per person which was not bad considering that there were only 4 passengers and the whole flight was about 30 minutes with 10 minutes standing up on the glacier. I feel it was well worth the cost for such an amazing experience.

You will have to remember that it is very much dependant upon good weather so if you do make a special effort to get to the area you may have to be flexible and stay an extra day or two if you do want to take a helicopter flight. We were lucky that the weather cleared and we were able to enjoy our flight in the end.
 

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