How I got there: We drove from Christchurch to Franz Josef and it was without a doubt the best road trips I have ever done! It is a scenic drive and we just could not stop, stopping over in places.
Total duration: We spent 2 days here before heading to Queenstown.
Traffic light for children: Green but Red for glacial hike
About the place: Let me start off by saying, what an amazing road trip it is! You pass by vast expanses of the earth and it is so beautiful that it takes your breath away! Snowy little glacial rivers glazing through the rocks and a beautiful road cutting past it! Every single spot looked like a poster. You see these posters on your computers, maybe even have it on your wallpapers but when you actually get to experience it, it is so surreal! I really wanted to visit the mirror lake, so after we reached Franz Josef, we drove to the Mirror lake. You must hike about 2-3 kms to get to see the picture-perfect mirror image lake (Lake Matheson). In front of the lake, you get the views of the Fox Glacier. Ending the day with a perfect hike, sounds like a plan, doesn't it?
The next day, we did a glacial hike. Glacial Hikes are one those oh-I-never-knew-about-it, but I want to add it to my bucket list and tick it off, kind of activity! You get to the top of the glacier on the helicopter, get to hike the glacier by passing through ice caves and icicles. You will be taken with a guide but do it at your own risk as it can be slippery, and the path is always unknown and new. The guides are very experienced and will teach you how to walk on ice, you will have to wear special shoes, cover yourselves with thick jackets but surprisingly, at the top it is not freezing cold, even though you are in the middle of ice. Seeing the blue colour of the glacier just melted all my sorrows away (Not that I had any, I was in New Zealand! :-) ). You will feel like you are walking inside a freezer! Not the newer sleek ones, but the old 90's ones that would always have ice around it, and dripping ice building up and down. The whole experience is so surreal! The glacier itself looks so beautiful and we had such a nice view from our Airbnb stay! Stay with the locals! Also, there are thermal pools here where you can spend some time in the night, after a tiring day of hiking on the glacier.
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