Anyway, off we went to the next stop - Glacier Region - where the plan was to take the helicopter ride to the top of the Glacier for some snowy fun. All along the way I had to temper my son's enthusiasm about seeing snow with vague answers as I did not want to disappoint him if the weather turns sour later on. It was a good 2 hour ride, but we did stop a few times along the way to take in some nice viewpoints and capture some pictures. Some stretches were so straight and empty that I couldn't help but speed along a jolly 120-130 kmph. On one such stretch, I was about to overtake a slower vehicle by crossing to the oncoming lane when I aborted it at the last minute by slamming the breaks as I was running out of road. Just then, we noticed a lone police man with a speed gun pointed right at me. I have seen a net total of 4 police men in the last 8 days here, and I sure hope my NZ souvenirs don't include a speeding ticket!
Just when I thought the west coast drive hugging the Tasman Sea on one side and the southern alps on the other horizon was not as good as the eastern coast ride, I went through a series of hilly S-Curves for 12km and was once again hooked on the futility of underestimating NZ natural beauty. I was indeed distracted at times and was thankful for the lane crossing alarm in my vehicle.
Once we reached Franz Joseph glacier region, we did a quick check in for our flight and soaked in the atmosphere of the small town, whose only business seemed to be organising scenic flights and tours for tourists.
The glacier flight was an amazing experience and the fastest 40 mins or our lives, which felt like 10. Being the first time for all of us aboard a helicopter, it was a cool experience with a steep angle of attack. The pilot was giving us a lot of useful info about the landscape, glaciers themselves and some interesting tidbits like 600cm of annual rainfall in the glacier region requiring several bunds to keep the river from overflowing!
We did a good 20 min flight covering all the major glaciers, including Tasman glacier, and sighting Lake Pukaki and Tasman Sea, before heading to a flat region on top of the Fox Glacier for the highlight of our trip - the snow landing!
I was as excited as the kids on seeing snow that I struggled with my duty as a father to keep clicking pictures and videos, while throwing snow balls and playing with snow myself! While it was more of icy crystals due to fresh snow not having fallen for a few days, it was great fun nevertheless for the 10 mins we were up there! The moment that the kida were craving for, didn't disappoint, and we were talking about it for a long time afterwards.
We stopped for lunch at a restaurant nearby, and again we had a great spread of vegetarian options to choose from, and the quantity was so overwhelming that we had to take away some of it. The Panini loaded with spinach, melted cheese and cream was especially awesome. I have never had so much spinach in my life and felt so good about it!
Once we had our stomachs full, we started on a quick 30 min drive to Fox Glacier to reach our accommodation before the reception closes. We were shocked when it said outside temperature was 29 degrees in the glacier town! The Top10 resort here was a lot more compact than the other two, with limited facilities. We felt the warmest we had during this trip and quickly crashed onto our beds for some rest before dinner. As my brain was struggling to process why the glacier region is the hottest, the sunset couldn't come sooner here! There were some glowworms in the bushwalks around here too that are visible in the night time.
Today was an awesome first experience on-board a helicopter, on a glacier, with snow for the children that we will never forget
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