Friday, December 22, 2006
Snow Good
A couple of walks en route including a trig walk to see snow covered mountains and sea at the same time and on 22nd in the evening we arrived in Franz Josef which is where I am writing to you from now. I am bizarrely in a red bus looking out the window at snow capped mountains and blue sky with just a few clouds in the sky. How is that for a view Mr Denton!
We took a heli-hike trip this morning, a glorious cloudless time, and flew in helicopters up over the Franz Joseph galcier and then landed on the ice. The advantage of being small is that I sat at the front although it was a bit of a shock when we started to dive to turn to land. On the ice we attached talons to the hiking boots we had been given, picked up our ice axe and followed our guide for a wander round. We climbed up and down over the rough terrain, passed through a narrow ice gap and climbed through a hole. There were a few cracks and drops to the side of me which were a bit bigger or deeper than I would have liked, but Dave of course was unphased and wanted to know why it was so slow! We had a bout an hour and half walking around on the galcier, seeing the blue ice, before the helicopter returned to transport us back to base. A beer at the pub after, sitting in the sun eating a caramel slice and then a spell in the hot tub afterwards and it is still sunny and shorts weather. What a great day. And I have seen snow before Christmas, although from what i heard there might be more colder stuff down towards Queenstown and there shouldn't be!
If we don't get to blog again before Christmas, and lets face it there is drinking to be done tomorrow night and we have a long day ahead travelling all the way to Queenstown, we wish you all a very Happy Christmas. Enjoy. We'll be thinking of you as we are at 'The Orphan's Christmas Dinner' complete with a drink, roast, Santa and a Maori show. We're looking forward to it.
We took a heli-hike trip this morning, a glorious cloudless time, and flew in helicopters up over the Franz Joseph galcier and then landed on the ice. The advantage of being small is that I sat at the front although it was a bit of a shock when we started to dive to turn to land. On the ice we attached talons to the hiking boots we had been given, picked up our ice axe and followed our guide for a wander round. We climbed up and down over the rough terrain, passed through a narrow ice gap and climbed through a hole. There were a few cracks and drops to the side of me which were a bit bigger or deeper than I would have liked, but Dave of course was unphased and wanted to know why it was so slow! We had a bout an hour and half walking around on the galcier, seeing the blue ice, before the helicopter returned to transport us back to base. A beer at the pub after, sitting in the sun eating a caramel slice and then a spell in the hot tub afterwards and it is still sunny and shorts weather. What a great day. And I have seen snow before Christmas, although from what i heard there might be more colder stuff down towards Queenstown and there shouldn't be!
If we don't get to blog again before Christmas, and lets face it there is drinking to be done tomorrow night and we have a long day ahead travelling all the way to Queenstown, we wish you all a very Happy Christmas. Enjoy. We'll be thinking of you as we are at 'The Orphan's Christmas Dinner' complete with a drink, roast, Santa and a Maori show. We're looking forward to it.
# posted by D&M Travels @ 6:38 PM 
