We arrived to Franz Josef yesterday and as it was such a nice weather (unlike today, it's been raining all day now) we got to do our Heli-Hike trip in the afternoon. We go in to the office a bit before 1pm and we went to get our gear on, boots, jackets and pants on (all waterproof as it is a warm glacier so you have water ponds here and there) and got on the helicopter. This was my first time ever in a helicopter (that's one reason I wanted to do this option, instead of just a hiking trip up to the glacier) and it was pretty cool. It was kind of like being in a rollercoaster :D
The helicopter took us all the way up on the glacier and then started to zigzag down. We landed on the glacier where there were two guides waiting for us. The hiking part in the glacier was about 2h 30min and we got to see waterfall and some pretty cool ice caves :) I went though the first ice cave they took us to and was pretty close to get a really bad panic attact so I didn't want to go through any of the other caves they took us to. It was really narrow and you had to slide down on your stomach, holding the rope and trying not to slip on your way down. It was horrible, I was hanging on to that rope like my life depended on it and I absolutely hated it. Claustrofobia kicked in hard. But I survived :D Walking up on the glacier wasn't what I expected. It was kind of like walking on the soft snow instead of slipping on the ice, as I thought. We did have the spike thingys on our boots, which were really good. But it was also hard as you had to really stomp with your feet to get a grip on the ice and snow so you wouldn't slip. This two hour something walk was just hard enough for me (as I'm not fit enough to do any demanding hikes), so I was happy not to sign in for the half or full day hikes for today :) After the hike, we got back down with the helicopter again and finally got to the hostel. I hadn't been eating since breakfast at 11am and we got back to the hostel at 5pm so I was starving already :D
So all and all, I enjoyed my Heli-Hike experience, I thought it was too expensive, but hey, you only live once, right? :)) Tomorrow we're heading down to Wanaka and I'll be spending there few days before going to my final destination (for now), Queenstown. So I'll write again, when I have something to report about. C ya!! <3
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