Day 2 (Part 2) New Zealand Franz Josef Glacier

Our marathon day in New Zealand continued after our early rise to take the Tranz-Alpine train ride through the southern alps on the South Island. From Greymouth, we took a bus ride down to Franz Josef Glacier. Our ride was made interesting by a quirky driver named Frankie. The buses we took were "local" buses, but were nice coach buses that took us for long trips through the mountains on the south island. Since it was such a long ride, they incorporated many stops along the way to get something to eat and stretch your legs. Frankie gave us some history, some stories and when we'd get off at break stops, he'd recite his motto to us: "We don't call you, we don't wait for you, and we don't come back for you!"

We arrived in Franz Josef Glacier on the west side of the South Island towards the end of the day, but were able to get on a helicopter ride to the top of the mountain to see the glacier and it was magnificent. Words cannot describe it, so I'll let the pictures below do the job. One thing to note is that although it looks cold, it wasn't... we were not actually on the glacier itself, just nearby. Even while standing on the snow, the air temperature was about 70 degrees Farenheit. More pictures at my photo website. Tomorrow, we'll go on to the mountains and rainforest on a horseback ride to end the ridiculously long Day 2 in New Zealand! :) Click here for the next post in this journey :)