We're on top of the world!

Monday October 27th (Labor Day)

Today we are heading to.....

We were very excited to go to the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers today, which was the main purpose for our West Coast trip this weekend. We were a little bit nervous with the bad weather yesterday that our planned activity would be cancelled, but as we got closer to the glaciers the weather started clearing. We knew we were close when we started seeing signs like the one above.

When we arrived at Fox glacier, we were not disappointed. We were going on a helicopter ride over the glaciers!!! I think the anticipation was showing as we got strapped in.

I don't know why Brian had his arm through that strap - maybe it makes him feel safe

WARNING - there are a lot of pictures in this post. We took about 200 pictures during this part of the trip so the fact that I cut it down to 43 is pretty good (in my opinion). But make sure you scroll down to the middle for an epic story.

As we lifted off, there was a lot of green and it was hard to believe we were going to viewing ice and snow capped mountains any time soon. I'm pretty happy with how a lot of the pictures turned out given that we were taking them through a window most of the time. We had a lot of fun passing the camera back and forth taking pictures of the views we each had out the window.

View as we entered the canyon where Fox glacier ends

The bottom of this pictures is where Fox glacier actually ends. It was pretty abrupt!

Here is the body of the glacier. It's crazy to me that this river of solid ice actually moves over time. It's definitely a force to be reckoned with. The contrast of colors is absolutely amazing and beautiful.

Close up of the ice. That blue ice underneath the dirt is fantastic. I guess it's the minerals in the water that make it turn that color - so interesting!

We never could have seen these amazing views from the base of the glacier if we had simply hiked to the bottom. This was definitely worth it!

Moving to the top of the glacier.

View of Fox glacier from the top. Although global warming has caused the glaciers to shrink, it's still pretty large!

We also got up close and personal with the peaks in the Southern Alps, including:

• Aoraki/Mt. Cook (highest peak)
• Mt. Tasman (2nd highest peak)
• Mt. Elie de Beaumont (highest peak North of Mt. Cook)

Mt. Cook

Another view of Mt. Cook

Tasman glacier

More cool views of the mountains...

This is the collection point for one of the glaciers. That means most of the snow that forms the glacier falls in this area

Franz Josef glacier

Now that we've flown around a bit, we are going to land on a mountain! Here is the flat spot that will serve as our landing pad.

We're ready to hop out.

It's time to get out of the helicopter. I wonder if the snow will be soft and fluffy or hard packed to walk on easily?  Survey say...hard packed! Good thing, I was a little worried about sinking into a snow drift or starting an avalanche.

The peak hidden by the clouds in the upper right hand corner is Mount Elie de Beaumont

Stupid clouds - get out of the way!

Our pilot is spraying the snow to help him land on later flights during the day - good thing since the fog is settling back in

Okay, here is the awesome story I promised in the warning at the beginning of my post. While we were enjoying the scenery on the mountain top, the pilot asked Brian how much he weighed. After Brian gave his best estimate, the pilot responded with "okay, I'm going to leave you where you are".

Now I don't know what that sounds like to you, but Brian showed some immediate and serious consternation. Brian's next question was "you're going to leave me up here?" Hahaha - he thought the pilot meant he couldn't get back on the helicopter, but he really just meant he was going to have to stay in the same seat in the helicopter. Usually the pilot switches the people around so everyone has a chance to ride in the front. We didn't get to do that, but I actually liked sitting in the back - we had way more room. The other couple was practically sitting on top of each other they were so squished.

We had a good laugh with the pilot about misconstruing what he said. Brian said he was very glad that he didn't have to stay because "he didn't have that many warm clothes with him" not that he would be sitting on a mountain by himself hoping someone would be coming back for him. Obviously his priorities are in check!

I'm kind of sad I put the camera on a bad setting for the pictures we took together - but you can sort of see us!

I had to Tebow on top of the mountain since I had also done it on top of the hill were they filmed the city of Edoras in LOTR 

A little pic of our pilot and the other couple in the heli with us. They were from Spain and really nice

Ready to get back in the helicopter and head back down

Good thing we didn't ask too many safety questions before our trip started or we may have chickened out. Our pilot said he has been flying since 1986. Every few years a helicopter crashes up here and all the people he trained with are dead. I guess we were lucky he was our pilot? As you can tell, we made it back safe and sound.

There was a little lake in between two of the peaks with the most beautiful blue water. The picture doesn't quite do it justice, but you can tell how unique the color was. I bet it was cold! 

Leaving the mountains and re-entering the valley

It's hard to tell, but our pilot made a really sharp turn that put us almost sideways as we came in to land. That's us looking straight down to the ground out Brian's window!

Safely home and the next group getting loaded up

As we left "Glacier Country", we had to make a few additional stops. For those of you who know us, know that we play World of Warcraft. The people who give out the quests in the game have an exclamation point over their heads. So when we saw these signs for cattle crossings, we had to take pictures. In the second pic, I've officially become a quest giver!

The rainforest we drove through was beautiful...is there anything in this part of the world that isn't?

 The Whataroa River was an amazing color of blue as well. It could have passed for the ocean. There is so much gorgeous scenery in this country - I absolutely love it!

Our last picture is another sign indicating that you should be cautious when the roads are wet. Brian loves this sign because the tire skidmarks are impossible to create. I'll leave it to you to figure out why. Enjoy!