That’s “gla-ci-er” (as opposed to the American “gla-sher”), FYI.
Sarah and I woke up on Thursday to another overcast day, but we were hopeful that the four hour drive through the mountains to Franz Josef Glacier would bring clearer skies. We were wrong. The drive was still pretty fun – windy roads with lots of ups and downs – but we didn’t get any great views. By the time we arrived, we were ready for some physical activity so we drove to Three Mile Lagoon to hike one of the trails. The area is a kiwi sanctuary so we were hoping to see one in the wild. Sadly we did not...but we were happy to settle for the views of the lagoon and the ocean.
The hiking path through the lagoon.
Looking north...
…and south from Ōkārito Trig (the end of the hike).
Afterward, we headed to town (which consists of only a few blocks) to find a place for dinner. There were only a few options, but we chose The Landing for some decent food and good WiFi. The weather wasn’t improving so we headed home to get some rest…but due to the late sunset we were able to get some great shots of the glacier around 9pm when the clouds cleared.
I walked out to the road by our hotel to check out the sunset.
Finally got to see the glacier.
We were hopeful that the weather would hold so we could explore the glacier up close on Friday, but unfortunately it was much worse. It poured (in varying levels of severity) all day. To pass the time, we drove down to Fox Glacier to check out the town there and grab lunch – very similar to Franz Josef, not much to see. Discouraged, we headed back to The Landing to take advantage of the WiFi and catch up on some computer time while we waited for the rain to pass. It didn’t, so we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up before dinner.
Just like last night, though, it started to clear up just as we were heading out to dinner, so Sarah grabbed the camera and snapped a few pictures.
The exact demarcation between cloudy and sunny sky was crazy.
Sarah made friends with the pony hanging out on the farm next to our hotel.
We had dinner at (you guessed it!) The Landing before calling it a night.
The weather this morning was finally on our side so we packed up our car and headed over to see the glacier. The hike to the closest viewing point was about 45 minutes, but we had great views of the glacier the whole time!
Walking up to Franz Josef Glacier.
Getting closer – most of the walk was through rocky riverbed like this.
Franz Josef Glacier up close (at least as close as we could get on the hike!).
We made it!
The walk back turned into more of a powerwalk – because the rain was back! We were really happy that we got a critical break in the weather for a few hours, but looks like the rest of the day will be rained out. Hopefully it’s nicer in our next stop: Hokitika.