Helicopter ride over the glaciers, Part 2 - The South Island West Coast, New Zealand
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 6 Apr 2009 10:18
|
43:30.023S 170:06.774E
Based on his own trip to New Zealand, one of Dad's
friends recommended viewing the glaciers and portions of the Southern Alps from
the air. So we took that advice to heart and made our plans for a
helicopter ride over the Fox Glacier and up to the peak of New Zealand's highest
mountain, Mt. Cook. Don reviewed the weather forecast and pronounced that
our last day based in Greymouth was the day to go - sunny skies and extremely
light winds were predicted - a perfect forecast for a helicopter ride. It
wasn't until then that we realized the date on that particular
day was March 13th, Friday the 13th. Hmmm...maybe not such a
good plan. In the end, however, even Don, the ever cautious pilot and sea
captain, put his superstitions aside and we went for it. The village of
Fox Glacier was a 2 1/2 hour drive south from Greymouth, and the
scenery along the way on such a gorgeous day was fantastic. Picture 1 is
just one of the views we had during the car ride. We never got tired
of seeing the clouds hang just below the snow covered mountain peaks like they
are in this picture. Looks like the backdrop for a movie doesn't
it? Speaking of which, the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in New
Zealand and the Misty Mountain scenes in the movies were filmed in and
around the Southern Alps. There were no sightings of dwarfs
climbing out of old gold mining shafts while we were in the
area though. And certainly no sightings of mysterious mountainside
doors with Elvish writing on them either.
We arrived at the helicopter tour office early, so
they bumped our ride up from noon to 11:30. Shortly thereafter,
we were shuffled off into the shuttle van without having a chance to really work
up a case of nerves. Good thing too since the day before when I asked Mom
if she was worried about her first helicopter ride, she simply replied that
she was, 'blocking it out until it actually happens.' The five minute
shuttle ride and immediate loading into the helicopter never gave her a chance
to dwell on the whole flying in a tiny machine over sheets of massive ice,
crevices and prickly mountain tops thing. In a jiffy we were up and away
and the calm pasture-scene that we took off from was replaced by a giant
blue-tinged river of ice and the feeling that we were floating, in sort of
an unhinged from reality way, in and around the mountain tops. Our
pilot/guide, did speak to us through the intercom system and we could hear a
voice coming through our headphones, but with the helicopter noise and the
distraction of the overwhelming views looming in front of and then
sliding past us, we couldn't understand a word of his New Zealand
version of English (or Unglish as the Kiwis say when making fun of
themselves).
Of course photos never do amazing scenery justice
(unless you are also an amazing photographer, which we are not), but Don got
some really good shots. Here are a few of the best:
Picture 2 - Our view of the Fox Glacier in all its
awesome ice river beauty taken shortly after take off.
Picture 3 - Looking through the mountain tops at
the blue, blue waters of what we think was Lake Tekapo (not sure, but we think
that's the name our pilot/guide said)
Picture 4 - Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in all
of Australasia at 3,755 m (something over 12,000 ft).
Picture 5 - We landed on the top of Fox Glacier and
hung out in the warm, brilliant sunshine for about ten minutes letting the
glorious views sink in and feeling completely exhilarated. That's Mom
and Dad exiting the helicopter with our pilot/guide in the background.
Note that Mom is smiling and looking relatively relaxed.
Picture 6 - On the way back down, our
pilot/guide brought us up close and personal with the ice fall at the top of the
glacier. Too cool.
Picture 7 - Back on the ground again, those
are Dad's legs dangling from the helicopter.
Picture 8 - It was impossible to top our
helicopter ride, but on the way back to Greymouth, we stopped to see the
Franz-Joseph glacier the old fashioned way - by foot and from the bottom.
What looks like a river of snow is the glacier and what Kiwis would call the
muddy bits near the bottom is where the glacier ends and melts
into the narrow river stream, which makes it's way to the nearby ocean (or more
technically correct, the Tasman Sea).
That about sums up our Friday the 13th day at the
glaciers. Definitely a South Island land tour highlight. And now Mom
can feel good about crossing 'helicopter ride' off her list of things to do
before turning 80. Maybe sky diving is next?
Anne
|
