Fox and Franz Josef

Chad Post:

The best part about this type of vacation Kristie and I are on is the freedom and flexibility.  The worst part is having the world at your fingertips and wanting to see it all.  There's a fine line where anything you do can go from enjoyable to exhausting depending on the itinerary, this is true with anything I suppose; friends, family, hobbies, work and so on down the line...

That being said I keep thinking we may live to be 100 and never step foot in New Zealand again, so we continue play hard.

At this point it is still only Tuesday afternoon and so far today we've already hiked a swamp, walked a beach and fished a river...so as we were driving north and came across the Fox Glacier National Park turnoff we turned off without hesitation.  Why Not....all of the sudden the sign appeared on the road and 5km later we are in the trail head lot ready to go.  Bing, Bang, Boom...half hour later we are at the top of the over look...steep up hill for the distance and a decent view. We exchanged taking each others pictures at the top with Madeline, a local farmer and her kids. 

Fox Glacier

Can't believe we started the day on the beach, did a jungle walk, and now hiked to a glacier overlook!?

Ready for the next glacier hike. Bring it!

We shot down to the bottom, got in the Jucy Van and away we went.  At this point it was 4:00 and we were only a 45 minutes away from Franz Josef Glacier....Get that Jalopy Moving!!!

Franz Josef is a little longer hike.  It goes across a variety of terrain and is not very steep.  The Glacier Carved valley is spectacular, full of water falls, peaks and cliffs.  The trek is cut short for safety purposes, most of which I understand because a handful of the general public doesn't have enough common sense to take care of themselves, but it is a shame for the rest of us that are mindful of our limits in respect to the outdoors.

For this reason Rob Roy Glacier has been the best....so far.....

Franz Joseph Glacier

The glacial runoff from Franz Joseph Glacier

After the days activities we find a good Holiday park to go cook food, shower and sleep.  While walking back from the shower to the Van I stepped off the walk way and rolled my ankle off the 10 inch drop.  In my slow motion mind it looked terrible, in real life I swore a lot and then I saw the blood pooring onto my sandal.  OH NO!!! But Wait - it's just bleeding, I didn't sprang anything I didn't break anything...what a blessing!!!

Kristie was in the shower so I didn't have any good medical advice and I went straight to the shower, bleeding all the way.  I get cleaned up and tell Kristie the bad news...Kristie breaks out her first aid kit and takes care of business.  She is the Ying to my Yang.  I get hurt so she can fix it.  That is my wife, the woman who travels with a first aid kit bigger than her camera.  I am obligated to do my part and put the kit to use by getting hurt....  She cleans it up with medical grade supplies and we are off to bed, hoping for no swelling in the morning.....