Memorable Fox Glacier Helihike - South Island New Zealand

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My Fox Glacier Helihike departed from the chartered helicopter helipad at 0945 & returned at 1300. It was the highlight of my trip to NZ South Island and I will remember it forever.

At several $100/person Yes it is expensive but it was definitely worth the cost unlike the money I wasted on the Tranz scenic TranzAlpine train - New Zealand

Apparently 50% of helihikes are cancelled and there were only 3 days of good weather in the past 60 days so I was very lucky that the weather was perfect with blue skies and no wind during my fox glacier heli hike :-)

Fox Glacier Heli hike South Island New Zealand

We saw ice of all shades from dirty black to pure white and glowing blue as our guide used his axe to cut a path for us in the constantly shifting glacial ice. There were also deep crevasses, ice caves, snow arches, snow tunnels and much more… I wish I could have stayed the whole day.

Fox Glacier Heli hike South Island New Zealand

I was the only person on the tour with a polarising filter on my camera, and judging by the harsh light bouncing off the ice which forced everyone to wear sunglasses it ensured my photos were much better than without the filter.

Bird watchers will be interested to know that I saw many Kea (NZ alpine parrots) around Fox Glacier Township and I was able to get quite close to take photos

back and side view kea new zealand alpine parrot

For more details about the various options from the low cost Fox Glacier Terminal Face Walk to the ultimate mountaineering adventure visit the Fox Glacier Guide’s website

Download a free 1024×768 resolution desktop wallpaper photo taken by me as I was flying over Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand

View some of the photos I took during my Fox Glacier heli-hike in my Picasa gallery


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5 Comments about “Memorable Fox Glacier Helihike - South Island New Zealand”

  1. Comment by Mark (1 comments.) on May 6th, 2008:

    Neerav

    Some excellent shots there of the glacier.

    Your pictures brought memories back from my visit to a glacier in Switzerland when I still lived there. The locals had hewn a tunnel / cave into that glacier for tourists to walk into the glacier and see the glacier from the inside. The light and colours were quite astonishing in some spots.

    Cheers
    Mark

    EDITOR: thanks mark :-)

    Do you have any digital photos from that glacier trip?

  2. Comment by Thom (1 comments.) on May 6th, 2008:

    Wow, awesome pictures! I guess living in the northern hemisphere we always think of the southern half of the world as a warm sunny paradise but, omg, there are glaciers down there too. I have a friend that lives in Alaska and he keeps trying to get me to come up for a visit, says I’ll never want to leave. Don’t know about that because I am kinda fond of the warm weather, but I’m sure it will be beautiful too. Thanks so much for sharing your pics with us!

    Thom

    EDITOR: thanks Thom :-)

    I’m always looking for guest writers with interesting tales on my travel blog

    If you could forward this message to your friend in Alaska I’d really appreciate it if they would consider telling my readers about Alaska in general or their home town like my friend Ben in Leadville, Colorado wrote about a week ago

    Details are at Guest Writers are Welcome

  3. Comment by David W. (1 comments.) on May 8th, 2008:

    Wow, thats some impressive stuff. I live in Colorado, and all we have for a “glacier” more resembles a snow field than anything that impressive. Definitely want to visit new zealand one day.

    EDITOR: I think you’re not being fair to your home state, my friend Ben wrote about living in Leadville, Colorado just a week ago and the mountains, snow and landscape looked pretty interesting to me

  4. Comment by Anonymous on May 10th, 2008:

    Wow. I hope someday I can do something like that. The older I get, the more the sense of urgency sets in.

  5. Comment by cabe on May 13th, 2008:

    Those are some awesome photos. I would love to be able to hike a glacier. I love the blue hues in the pictures. Thank you for sharing.


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