Franz Josef

Franz Josef is a little town that lies in the shadow of the snow capped Alps. These mountains are only 300 meters above sea level meaning that within the space of a day you can walk on a glacier, journey though temperate rainforest and then go scuba diving in the ocean (definitely going to try that one day). Amy, Eliza, Andy and I stayed in a snug timber cabin. We also soaked in the outdoor hot tub and drank Tui in the bar whilst the log fire thawed our limbs (the south island is very cold).

The next morning was very special, At the crack of dawn we took off by helicopter into the mountains. The journey was amazing and I have decided that helicopters are the coolest form of transport. Once strapped in we pulled down our headsets which did little to drown the noise of the whirring rotorblades but you could hear everything the pilot could. Once the skids left the ground we hovered for a few seconds, tilted and spun in the direction of the Alps. The chopper had a large windscreen so it felt like I was moving in a bubble passing over the dark forest canopies, through wispy clouds and onto the white mountain of snow and ice. After touching down we strapped on our crampons and started the trek; scaling the ice walls, walking through archways sculpted from the ever shifting river of frost; the whole 80 meter deep ice sheet creeps down the mountain a meter or so every day. We explored further into the interior of the glacier carefully avoiding the occasional perilous fissure that bore deep and act as drainage basins, you really don’t want to fall down one of those because they might not be able to get you out. At some points you walked between great ruptures in the ice squeezing along a path that is only as wide as your boots. Here the compaction is so great the glassy ice gives off a bluish hue and the ice is so smooth it is like walking amid two colossal ice cubes. I wanted to see the figure of a caveman or at least a mammoth staring back at me through the frosty window, I had no such luck.

Equipped with a pick axe our guide chiseled a path through the ice maze, he told us to stay close because it is so easy to take a wrong turn and get lost here. Eventually we clambered into the sunlight and were better able to take in the sheer scale of what we stood on. It was an epic slope of ice stretching higher towards the mountain’s summit and out of view. On either side of the glacier and running parallel where jagged ridges, their black rocks stood in stark contrast against the white stuff. Every now and then you would see a helicopter beside the ridgeline banking and yawing up towards the nevus. Whilst we waited for our chopper back to Franz Josef we got to break up plates of ice with the pick axe. The ice sheet had breached from the glacier at an angle and was thick enough to stand on. The first impact connected with a dull resonating sound creating fractures in the ice, the second blow saw a substantial slab split off and many smaller fragments shatter, it’s a very satisfying way to let off steam.

Once back in town our whole bus warmed up in the luxury hot baths with different temperatures all the way up to 42 degrees. Leaving the hot baths steam rose from my shoulders and I looked back at the ice mountains reflecting the in the last light.