Day 24 21.3.23 Franz Josef

Overnight temperature dropped to 10° We heard the heater kick in on low a few times during the night.  Today's top is expected to be 13°

8am: It has stopped raining but looks very overcast. We haven't heard anything from the helicopter company yet so that's a good start.

9am and the cloud is lifting. This is the view we had as we departed our accommodation to go walking. 

On the way to the base of Franz Josef Glacier. 

We headed off on the forest walk to view the glacier. 

This photo was taken from the sign above.

Zoomed in.

A bit of zooming in

We did the sentinel rock walk next. It was a good climb.

After walking 2kms we drove back to FJ town for a coffee. 

11am we called in to see about our heli-hike and it's been cancelled. We are on the waiting list for tomorrow and Thursday morning after that we have to start heading back towards Christchurch and home. We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed but it is what it is. 

We made the most of it and circumnavigated Lake Matheson, 6kms from the town of Fox Glacier. It's known as the reflection Lake and the scenery was stunning. It was a 5.1km walk, despite what the sign says!!

Suspension bridge. 

Well maintained pathways.

From Wikipedia. 

After this walk we decided to have lunch. 

Lunch view.

We found a spot a few kms down the road to view the Fox Glacier. 

Bit chilly. 

On the road back to Fox Glacier. 

For some reason we decided to another walk before we head home.

Interesting cloud forming. 

Now the cloud has lifted we have snow views from the bedroom window. 

We couldn't see these mountains from our doorway yesterday due to the weather.

View from the road. 

My pedometer says we've walked over 20,000 steps or 14kms. We had a quiet night in. 

Today's temperatures 10-14°. 

At 10pm it's already down to 9°.