In 2005 my Dad and I headed over from Australia to the south island of New Zealand to hike the Franz Josef Glacier. The hike lasted most of the day and was a somewhat dangerous yet amazing journey. Cutting steps in untouched ice, squeezing through huge slabs of ice and crossing over crevasse after crevasse was a real rush! What a day! How could we top that?
Well we did come up with a way. The next morning we took a helicopter flight over the glacier in a Hughes 500 helicopter.
Despite being on the glacier for around 9 hours the day before the flight soon highlighted to us how little distance we had actually covered during the hike! The Franz Josef Glacier is massive!
It was a beautiful sight flying over the glacier along with the surrounding mountains and snow fields. The flight was a great experience and gave us a whole new perspective of the glacier.
We then had an added highlight. The pilot expertly landed the helicopter on an untouched snow field high above the glacier.
It was a winter wonderland up there! What a day!
Aces Flying High 