On to Franz Josef Glacier
Today started out a little ominous. We got all packed and ready to go, and
the car wouldn’t start. I know
there was nothing left on, but I think the battery cable may have gotten
loose. Anyway, a friendly service
man came out, jumped the car, and we were on our way. We were going to stop at a hot springs we got directions to
just outside of Harihari, but decided to keep going since we got started
late. We were able to play a few
games of cribbage in which John beat me every time, before we got on the road.
Now we are seeing the mountains! We arrived at Franz Josef, checked the i-site area, and the
girl sent us to Fox Glacier to see Mt. Cook since the clouds were still pretty
scarce. We got there and Mt. Cook
peeked out a couple of times, but we were also able to see a few other
mountains. These mountains stand
between 11,000 and just over 12,000 feet and we are standing pretty much at sea
level! Then we headed back to
Franz Josef, checked in our hostel and headed out to do a few hikes. We were able to go to a lookout area
and also to the termination point of the glacier. It’s receding quickly!
We came back into town and booked a backpack up the Copland Track for
tomorrow night! We’ll walk in 18
km tomorrow, sleep in a hut, hopefully sit in the hot springs there, and then
head back on Sunday. We’ll probably
stay in Fox Glacier on Sunday night, get up early to see the sunrise from Lake
Matheson. We’ll have to hike in a
bit, but then we should hopefully get a good glimpse of Mt. Cook. I also want to stay up late one night
to see the Southern Cross, but haven’t been able to yet. We are pretty exhausted every
night! We’re packing our backpacks
tonight and we’ll get on the road early so we can hit the hike around 9:00!
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