Franz Jozef Glacier by Koen Blanquart

Ice, Ice, Baby

Near Franz Jozef Glazier Today: We trade the sea for the mountains, get attacked by sandflies and are remembered that 16 degrees is actually not so warm…

Hemi and Pauline of the Awatuna Homestead had treated us so well yesterday: we ended the day on the Veranda with that bottle of wine. This morning, plans have been delayed slightly as we had difficulties getting out of bed. The weta waking us up at two in the morning with a deafening concert did not help.
So after a great talk with our hosts, we went for the Franz Jozef Glacier. By noon, we had made it to our home for the next days: the Westwood Lodge. We checked in, had a small lunch and walked up to the glacier. We’ll be back tomorrow, as the day today was rather cold (16C in the valley, a bit colder near the glacier). We needed some heat and ended up in the Hot Pools, after a massage.

Glacier

Franz Jozef Glacier


That’s when we discovered that we had been bitten on the glacier by the local famous sand-flies. We will get us a stronger repellent before we get back up that mountain.
For you Lord of the Ring fans: the glacier in these pictures is part of the mountain complex that you can see when the beacon of Minas Tirith and the six following beacons are lit.
Franz Jozef Glavier, New Zealand, the 21st of January 2011