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Glacier country: mountains, snow, perfect roads and ‘gob-smackingly beautiful’ rivers. The moment we hit glacier country the rivers and streams went from a dark colour to a bright turquoise colour. For the techie people this turquoise colour is created by sunlight radiating off the ground rock and minerals in the melted glacier water. For the non techie people just stand in awe and enjoy.

There are two glacial towns: Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier. Franz Joseph is the biggest with cafes, restaurants, tourist adventures and information centres. We found a lovely campsite there but it had no grass. Only after setting up camp I noticed that there were beautiful trees but no grass anywhere in the township, except in the little church yard. Everywhere the ground was stony.

Franz Joseph offers everything from hiking the glacier to helicopter trips. We opted for the least adventures and cheapest way to experience Franz Joseph Glacier – to walk to the base and have lunch. We couldn’t decide whether to go to the start of the glacier walk by bike or bus. In the end damage done to another biker’s seat convinced us to leave our bikes in camp and take a bus.

The trip to the glacier is definitely a highlight. To be walking through a temperate forest, near sea level with this huge ice mountain that looks like a cat’s paw reaching over the mountain trying to get you is indescribable. The power in that amount of ice that is moving towards you at a rate of 1m a day (so no need to rush out the way except for falling ice rocks if you get too close to the terminal face of the glacier) is just awesome.

We walked all the way to the glacier face and was surprised at its height. The people climbing on it (with professional guides) looked like tiny ants. The surface was rocky with tiny pebbles, big rocks and ice all mixed together. A river ran right under it catching all the melting snow and had formed an ice cave which was extremely dangerous to go into. I was also surprised at how cold and windy it was at the glacier face.

Due to global warming the glacier has retreated since its 1930’s position. However, while we were there a lady told us when she first visited in the 1070’s they couldn’t see the glacier at all except by helicopter yet we could walk right up to the front of it and touch it. The descriptive display boards had photographs of what changes have taken place since the late 1800s. It was fascinating to see that where this display board was used to be a lake with ice bergs in it. That was hard to imagine standing there with stony rocks and a dried river bed around us.

There are also other interesting walks at the base of the glacier giving you different viewpoints and look out points of the glacier. I remember only one requiring a degree of fitness, but definitely well worth doing!