Franz Josef Travel Blogs

Today just a short blog, partly because I have some sick adventures to share with you tomorrow. I hiked the Franz Josef glacier today. A full day hike, getting up at six, present at 8:15, walk/climb to five in the afternoon. I though it would be tough, but funnily enough I felt quite fit at the end…

Well, the weather is better but our helicopter flight has been cancelled as the weather is not good for joy flights. Well time to go on one of those glacier walks. We chose the one that went up to the lookout rather than the one to the base. The reason being that we had walked on a glacier in Alask…

Helaas, mijn helicoptervlucht voor de heli hike op de gletsjer is net afgelast. Ik sta nu standby voor vanmiddag, maar volgens mij heb ik een kleine kans dat ik meemag want dan moeten er mensen afzeggen. Echt balen. Ik kan vanwege mijn krappe reisschema ook niet langer blijven in de hoop dat het we…

or is it? mid twenties temperatures, blue sky, nice breeze and enormous mountains & glaciers in the background... can nature be any more beautiful? arriving at 1:30 in the franz josef town i got the urge to splurge it once again - helicopter hike up the glacier! hell that was fu…

At 3 I set off in smelly wet boots to climb the Franz Josef glacier. After tramping through the woods for a short while we came to a clearing of A LOT of rocks and up in front is the intimidating glacier. Maori legend tells is that the glacier formed from the tears shed by a Maori woman (forgot her…

We left Barrytown in the morning around 8am. It was f*cking freezing. And there was no hot water. Basically, bad start of the day. Our drive was quite rainy. I sat at the back of the bus, next to some really arrogant British girl who didn't even make small talk. We stopped over at Hokitika…

*****DAY THIRTY-SEVEN (January 8, 2009) - CLIMBING THE GLACIER!***** I got up VERY early in Hokitika to make it down to Franz Josef for a 9am heli-hike on the glacier.  I was bummed (but not surprised) when the heli-hike was canceled because of bad weather.  :(  So instead, I signed…

    The faint smell of morning rain, the radiant rays of light spearing the crisp dawn air. Hearing the silence of beauty followed by the restlessness of life. To see another birth of another day, to perceive the magnificence of it all.   And all I want is to take a picture…

We moeten vandaag om 08:15 uur bij de vliegmaatschappij zijn voor een rondvlucht over Fox en Franz Josef gletsjer. Pa weet nog van niks, we hebben hem wijs gemaakt dat we met een gids gaan wandelen op de gletsjer en daarom zo vroeg daar moeten zijn. Al jaren heb ik hem zo nu en dan horen zeggen dat…

Franz Josef is a small town but with alot of accomodation and some bars. Daily tours to expolre the wonderful glacier starting in town. Wanted to do a heli-hike. Due to bad weather it was cancelled twice :-( They sad it rains more than half a year - crazy! But this is necessary and good for the gla…

Today we went Glacier Hiking at Franz Josef Glacier! But first some interesting facts: ·         It takes 50 years for the Glacier to move from the top of the mountain 8 miles down to the bottom ·         This glaci…

Aaaargh, I just wrote this whole post and then internet explorer died. How dare it! So this'll be brief I'm afraid. I've been in New Zealand for a week now, Wellington was surprisingly small and quiet for a capital city but the museum was good, particularly the colossal squid. I knew they'd found …

We got up early and walked to the Glacier tour group to get kitted out with raincoat, waterproof overtrousers, hats, gloves, socks, boots and crampons. We then took a bus to the base of the glacier and walked beyond the protective wire and walked half an hour to the base of the glacier. Here we spl…

Pictures say more than words, so I'll keep it short. In our 6 month of travelling, for the most part New Zealand,i took tons of pictures.In this blog i picked some of them to show my favourite places of my favourite country ;-)...

After an amazing year working & meeting new friends in New Zealand, it was time to start travelling this amazing country. The plan was to start in the South Island, head North & to make my way back home to the UK through Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, South Korea, China & unplanned Taiwan.