Drive to Franz Joseph Glacier

I was pretty sad to leave Arthur's Pass as it was really pretty but quite excited to get to Franz Joseph Glacier. When the GPS says its going to take three hours to get somewhere it usually takes me more than five hours to get there becasue I pull over at every sign that I see along the way.

Arriving in Franz Joseph, I checked into my hostel and then drove to the parking lot for the Glacier and walked the 40 minutes to get to the base of the Glacier. There are a bunch of ropes up blocking people from going too close to the Glacier. The only way to get any closer is to pay a guide to get you closer, which seems like a real scam to me. Particularly because they make you stay so far back, unless you pay. I'm sure there is an element of danger, and there are a lot of dumb people out there, but still. The glacier was cool, but it was also a bit disappointing that I had to stay so far back.

At night I walked down a trail in the dark and saw some glow worms sticking out of the root of a giant tree that had fallen over. I tried to take pictures but they look like stars in the sky with the flash off and you can't see them when the flash is turned on.

Check out all of today's pictures by clicking on the picture below:

2012-04-15 Drive to Franz Joseph Glacier