We caught a bus
inland to the small town of Franz Josef to take a look at the Franz Josef
glacier. We arrived late in the afternoon, so no time to do any ice climbing or
anything too exciting, but I wanted to catch a glimpse, so grabbed a bus out to
the glacier. It was a bit of a trek into the glacier, so I had a good run in
trying to catch the last glimpses of sunlight on the glacier. I had enough
light to take a look at the glacier, and it ended up being a very cool
experience as I was the only person in the glacial valley. The glacier itself
was pretty cool, 'dirty' and towering up between two steep cliffs, but even
better was the valley. It was a huge valley with steep sides, water falls, neat
vegetation and a valley floor littered with glacial debris and stones - very
picturesque and beautiful . I'm so glad I made it out to the glacier, and it
was nice to stretch my legs with a good run!
The magical Franz Valley.
We left Franz early
the next morning on our way towards the ski and adventure area of the South
Island - Wanaka and Queenstown. Wanaka was our destination for the day, and we
had a great ride there through some absolutely amazing mountain scenery. I don’t
think it will matter how many times I see mountains, I will always be impressed
by them, and take way too many pictures of the same one. My visit to the
mountains in the winter has been especially neat as I have gotten to see the
beautiful snow on the mountains, but I haven't gotten snowed in anywhere! We
stopped at the picturesque Mattison Lake in front of the mountains, and enjoyed
the reflection of the mountains in the water, the beautiful vistas and the
crisp, fresh air. The forest we went for a walk through was also very different
and beautiful as this one was more mossy than the past ones and had a very
green hue. We arrived in beautiful Wanaka with more spectacular views and I had
a very lovely rest of my day… skydiving!!
The Lake Mattison view
Yep, you heard that
right - I went skydiving and had a blast! I got my gorgeous suit on, a harness
and climbed into a plane. I got all strapped to my 'beautiful stranger' and enjoyed my one way plane ride. The scenery
was beautiful as we climbed up into the air, and circled higher and higher
until 12000 feet. If I thought the view was nice from inside the plane, it was
even better from outside the plane!! My tandem partner and I jumped out of the
plane in 'free-fall' position, and I loved every minute of it! I had an
unobstructed view of Lake Wanaka and the beautiful mountains surrounding the
area. After a few fun spins to get the full 360 view, we had a smooth landing
and were back on solid ground. I'm definitely going to have to do that again
some day! We spent the rest of the day with lots of adrenalin in our systems
and heard a great live band that night.
Me and my beautiful stranger
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