After stopping at a free camping site...which was hilarious since we got there after dark and there were no signs of life...we headed towards Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. We stopped at Fox Glacier first and got our first peek from a ways away. After checking out the visibility and reading up on the reviews, we decided to spend more of our time and effort hiking towards the Franz Josef Glacier.
The two glaciers aren't too far from one another, so after another 45 minutes or so of driving, we made it to the Franz Josef Glacier. We were really hoping for some sun, since they only allow you to hike within about a football field of the glacier. You could also take a helicopter ride on the glacier, but that was a bit out of the budget.
The clouds were prevalent, but we hiked on, excited to see the glacier up "close" After about an hour, we reached the farthest point...just when the sun peeked out...so cool!! The color of this glacier was gorgeous, and we had a great time checking it out, and getting lots of pictures:) I'm sure the people waiting for the prime positioning we had were slightly annoyed, but we wanted to soak it all in...and getting nine of us to smile at the camera at the same time posed a challenge:) Andy also used this time to make a reservation for our next holiday park. We needed to make sure we were able to have accommodations, since it was our last night before returning the the camper vans. Somehow, Andy was able to get reception at the glacier?
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| Minor miracle...everyone smiling at the camera |
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| Traveling BFF's |
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| Andy booking our last holiday park for that night |
We took our time hiking back to the vans, stopping at some picturesque views along the way. We were so grateful for the sun coming out and not only bringing the blue sky, but also the warmth. It shouldn't have been odd to us that we were bundled up for cold in December...except that it was New Zealand's summertime...not sure any of us were mentally prepared.
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| Picturesque |
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| Twinkle toes needed some extra encouragement to make it back |
That day we had several hours of driving left before we got to the park. We wanted to get to Arthur's Pass so that the following day would be a bit easier. We were able to get to our Holiday Park, labeled the best in NZ, before dark. We showered, did some laundry, and had yummy tacos for dinner in the lounge/kitchen. The park also had glow worms, so once we were cleaned up, Andy took the kids while I got the beds ready for when they got back. We had seen a great display of glow worms the year before in Australia, so these were a little disappointing, but overall, a fun experience. The kids got a bit messy, but at that point, we just put them to bed and got to bed ourselves. We had a long day coming and needed to get up early. We were heading back to Christchurch, dropping of the campers, picking up the 15 passenger van, and making it several hours to Blenheim.
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| Lots of cards were played |
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| Kitchen...and pull our "master bedroom" |
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| Our last night in the campers |
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| Reminder that I actually drove this for five days |
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