Franz Josef Glacier, Wanaka, and on to Twizel

The next morning I took the short drive down the road to Franz Josef Glacier. It was a rainy, grey day, but the hike to the glacier was gorgeous. The first part of the walk was through a lovely rain forest.

It soon opened up into the glacier valley.

I'm not sure how many of these waterfalls are permanent or if, like Milford Sound, the entire valley opens up when it rains. Possibly because I grew up in dry, deserty areas, I've always been a little crazy about waterfalls, so here are many pictures...

The paths were very well maintained, and for the first half of the walk I was able to keep my Converse-clad feet relatively dry.

There weren't many people around, so with the fog and landscape, the closer I got to the glacier the more otherworldy everything felt.

Climate change has driven the glacier quite far back up the valley (around 100 years ago, the glacier was up to the point where I'd initially entered the valley, about a half-an-hour's walk ago). For safety reasons, this is as close as tourists are allowed to get.

These pictures don't do the stunning blue of the ice any justice at all.

Despite a heavy duty, long rain coat, when I returned to the rental car I was completely soaked from my hips to my toes, having given up trying to keep my feet dry. I was tromping through puddles like an extraordinarily large five-year-old, grinning from ear to ear.

The cloud cover and rain started to break the farther I got from the coast, and the sun breaking through the clouds in this valley was particularly beautiful.

I stopped off for another short walk to a waterfall (I am predictable like that).

Summer Hobbit home by the river!

The weather had cleared beautifully by the time I made it to Lake Wanaka, so I stopped to take some pictures.

I had to stop to take more pictures going over this pass into the valley on the way to Twizel. I felt if I had somehow found myself in Nevada rather than New Zealand. Quite the contrast from the morning.

I arrived at my AirBnB in Twizel, which  my Colorado readers would recognize as looking almost exactly like South Park. There were multiple times on this trip where I'd think, "Oh, this is just like (place), except for the palm trees!" Not here. I felt vaguely as if I would wake up to discover that I was actually in Fairplay and it had all been a dream.

I booked a Lord of the Rings tour for the next day, as it had been highly recommended. Pictures from that in the next post!