Franz Josef Glacier

After reluctantly leaving Hokitika, we hurried down to Franz Josef as we knew bad weather was coming.  We got there late afternoon when the light was beautiful, and the glacier was still clear.  Despite my bad foot, we decided to do the walk to the glacier face.

The start of the walk was through pretty native bush and some beech trees.

And babbling brooks...

 The halfway through we got our first glimpse of the glacier...

Interesting rock formation - must be very old...

Then it opened up to the river bed which we walk along to the glacier face.  The sky was still blue here...

But like any mountainous area - how quickly it can change...

 Getting closer...

We passed by cliffs with pretty waterfalls...

Next time I'll bring my tripod...

It was a warm day but I had no compulsion to stand under the falls due to how cold the water would be...

So pretty...

Weather closing in and by this time I was hoping we would get there in time...

Looking back to the way we came - nice blue sky at the coast which is only about 20km away!

I loved the blue ice...

Looks incredible....

Here's the face of the glacier with the river underneath...

More blue ice...

Towards the top....

The whole thing...

I could have stayed there for much longer...

Sadly leaving...

One last photo before we disappear back into the bush...

I should say that we also fossicked for ages here - the rocks were quite spectacular - mainly schist.   The river above was fairly cold but crystal clear water.  There were several huge 1 tonne rocks which would have looked fantastic on my garden too, but I couldn't persuade Steven to carry them for me!!!!

I'm definitely heading back!!!