Franz Josef is a small town located in the South Island region of New Zealand. Fox Glacier and Franz Josef glacier are the two most famous glaciers located in this region. Franz Josef glacier is more popular among tourists because the town is located by just 5 km distance from the glacier and the town offers wide range of restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. Franz Josef glacier scenic flight tours, Kayak tours, Hot Pool tour and Franz Josef glacier valley walk are the popular tours available from Franz Josef glacier. The town is named after the glacier Franz Josef. Most of the accommodations in Franz Josef town is sold out in advance during the peak tourist season. I will strongly recommend everyone to book their accommodation in advance if they are visiting the town during peak tourist season.
Franz Josef is located about 8 hours bus ride from Queestown. I started at around 8 am in the morning and the bus was supposed to reach at around 4.30 pm. The bus had scheduled stop at lake Wanaka, lake Hawea and thunder creek waterfalls. Our first stop was Wanaka town. We had around 30 minutes to take some photos of the beautiful lake and the bus picked up additional passengers from Wanaka town. We crossed Albert town and the bus started travelling adjacent to the beautiful lake Hawea. The lake side road was beautiful and the scenery was fantastic. The bus stopped for 10 minutes and we took some nice photographs of the spectacular views of the lake. The weather was cold and windy but no one really cared about it because everyone was busy enjoying the beautiful views of the lake.
Thunder creek waterfalls is located near Haast pass. The bus stopped for 20 minutes near the main road and the waterfall was located by just 5 mins walk from the main road. The path to the waterfall from the main road is well laid out and it was a beautiful walk among lush green forest. The view of the waterfall was spectacular and it was located at the other side of the river.
Fox Glacier town was the last stop before Franz Josef Glacier. I finally reached Franz Josef town at 4.30 pm. The weather was overcast and it was raining heavily. The town is very small and you can easily walk from one side of the town to another side within 30 minutes. It was very easy to find my accommodation because the town is really small. I checked into my accommodation and had some nice hot soup for dinner.
The next day i booked for the Glacier Valley Walk tour. The tour lasts for about 3 hours and there are two slots for the tour. The slots are scheduled at 10.15 am and 2.15 am respectively. The cost of the tour was 79 USD which included guide fees and rental for hiking boots, raincoat jackets and raincoat pants. I took the 2.15 pm slot for the tour and our meeting point was Franz Josef Glacier Guide center The center was located by about 10 minutes walk from my accommodation.
After a 15 minutes briefing about the tour we changed ourselves into proper hiking outfit. After a short ride from the center we reached the parking lot which was the starting point of the Glacier valley walk. Our group consisted of 10 members and there were 2 guides for the tour. We walked inside a rain forest for the first 30 minutes of the trail. After we crossed the rain forest it started raining and we had the first glimpse of the glacier from this point. We came down to the valley after crossing the rain forest. We walked in the valley for almost 30 minutes and crossed numerous small streams and waterfall on our way. The last section of the trail involved steep climb to the Glacier viewing point. Waiho river is located very close to the Glacier valley. Our guide pointed us to scratches along both sides of the mountain. The scratches along the mountain is caused by the friction between receding Glacier and the mountain.
The last section of the trail involved a short uphill climb towards the Glacier viewing point. It was raining and the Glacier was covered with cloud. We waited for the cloud to recede and finally after sometime we were rewarded with beautiful views of the Glacier. The viewing point was the last point of the trail and the trail is closed to public after this point. We followed the same trail and returned back to the parking lot. The tour was amazing and our guides were extremely friendly and knowledgeable.
Franz Joseph Glacier guide offers Helicopter ride to Franz Josef Glacier. The cost of the Glacier Heli hike tour is 450 USD. The Heli Hike tour involves hiking on Franz Josef Glacier and the total duration of the tour is about 4 hours.
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