Swinging by Franz Joseph

Swinging by Franz Joseph
Franz Josef, New Zealand

Franz Josef, New Zealand

Another day, another glacier and this one on my birthday. Arriving in Franz Joseph was pretty astounding as the skies were clear and the mountains and glaciers were just hovering over the town like a picture postcard view.

Initially we had thought that seeing Fox would be enough, but we were so close we had to pay a visit to Franz Joseph as well and as Tim had no plan for my birthday this was his treat to let me walk 5km through a river bed and through a valley of falling rocks, who says romance is dead!

I am so glad that we did visit Franz Joseph as it was possibly even more amazing than Fox had been. The danger levels of getting to it were significantly higher, but the risk to reward ratio of getting so close to the terminal face was awesome.

Like Fox, Franz Joseph is 12km long and has also started a rapid retreat since 2008 which has been attributed to global warming. Yet again no mention of the hundreds of helicopters ferrying rich tourists to the ice every 5 minutes for 8 hours a day!!

Tim did have one treat for me at Franz Joseph and he took me to the hot springs for the afternoon to bubble away my birthday. Bliss.

As a sidenote, Tim had originally planned a Couchsurf for my birthday in the little town of Hokitika, he sold it to me well and told me that it was with a really nice older couple. The wife was a dairy farmer and would let me milk a cow and the husband was a green stone carver and would let me carve my own greenstone necklace. All was organised and we were due to be there on my birthday, but there was something just a bit odd about this couchsurf. Initially they responded to us and asked us to ring them, which is unusual, but we went ahead and when we rang they seemed so taken back that we had rung that it was one of the most awkward phone calls we have ever had. We stuck with it but after about 2 days from the phone call we still hadn’t received details of their address and things seemed a bit odd. This is where Tim finally disclosed to me that there was something in their profile that he was a bit unsure of…. The glaringly obvious statement that they ‘Enjoyed the Adult Lifestyle and there is no harm in asking’. Clearly Tim was setting us up for a swinging session for my birthday, now that would have been a surprise!

Next up, Greymouth and Punakaiki (Pancake Rocks).