Franz Josef, New Zealand

After spending a night at Nelson, I left early in the morning to go to Franz Josef Glacier. Once again, the transportation is almost as good an attraction as the destination. The views out the window of Paparoa National Park among other places were jawdropping and I wish I had spent a bit of time there. At a roadside cafe in the middle of nowhere, I got to try a Possum Pie. Meat pies are quite common here, as with most English-speaking countries other than the US, and Possums are an invasive pest here so someone thought of hunting and selling their meat. Well, it wasn't too bad actually. The meat tasted a bit like the dark meat of an odd chicken. But eventually, I got to the town of Franz Josef Glacier (which exists solely to serve the tourists coming here), where there is actually a few good places for having some beer and quality pizza. The next morning I went out to Franz Josef Glacier and hiked through some blue ice caves and 40 foot crevasses of blue ice. It was quite cool and even more so for the fact that the glacier sits in a valley with a rainforest in it. So we hiked through rainforest in order to get to the glacier. It was a pretty unique experience, here are some pictures:

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Details:
I took the nakedbus from Nelson to Franz Josef, which left at 7:10am from just outside the iCenter in the center of town ($20). They stopped at several roadside cafes, a river view, and the pancake rocks for breaks. In Franz Josef, I stayed at Chateau Franz ($15 for dorms), a good hostel with about the same standards as all the other BBH hostels. No free breakfast here, but free soup in the evenings. It is just off the main road. Franz Josef Glacier Guides run a bunch of different hikes, I did the Full Day Glacier Experience ($90). Don't do the Half Day, it takes a while to hike up to the good ice so most of your day will be wasted. They provide gloves, hat, boots, socks, jacket, pants, and crampons. Don't expect quality though. While it isn't especially cold on the glacier, you may be cold because you don't move around too much, it is very stop-and-go.