The Franz Josef Glacier

The West Coast of South Island… Many travellers dream to go on a road trip along this famous coastal line, known as the most beautiful of New Zealand. After leaving Hokitika , where we carved our own jade, we take the road again with our friends Younn and François. We are heading south, towards the well-known Franz Josef glacier !

Franz Josef Glacier

There is a 130km between Hokitika and the small tourist village of Franz Josef. With its hotels, youth hostels and numerous shops, the little town was only built in order to exploit the tourism potential of the area. Indeed, a large number of buses spews a steady stream of tourists from all around the world who crowd on the terraces of the cafes before going to visit the glacier.

As for us, we arrive at the YHA where our friends booked a room for the night. There is no cheap camping nearby, let alone free ones! Just in case, we ask at the counter if it would be possible to camp in the yard in front of the hostel, for a cheaper price. Surprisingly, they agree immediately ! So it seems that some hostels accept campers. Good news for the rest of our trip ! This information will be usefull in case that we need a B plan! We pitch our tent quickly (before they change their mind, you never know), engulf a sandwich then jump back in the car to race to the glacier located 10 km away.

A large valley open a gash in the Southern Alps, created over the millenias by the massive glacier. From the car park, we have to walk quite a way to get near this incredible mass of ice. We can choose between two solutions : either we follow the herd of tourists on the classical 1H30 return track at the bottom of the valley, or we choose to take the « hard » track, longer and more pysical, mostly avoided by visitors. I let you bet which one we chose… Yes, of course we took the second one!! Let’s go for a 5 hours return track, through Peters Pool, Douglas Walk and Robert Point track!

In fact, Peters Pool is just nearby the car park, only a few minutes away at the end of an easy track. It’s actually just a small pond surrounded by marshes and reeds, but the view from there is absolutely amazing! The surrounding mountains are reflected in the stagnant waters of Peters Pool, perfect mirror of the stunning beauty of New Zealand wilderness. Information boards also tell you about the evolution (or rather should we say regression) of the glacier in recent years. The glacier is melting at an alarming rate! At the end of the 19th century, it was still at Peters Pool’s level. Nowaday, it’s barely visible from here!

Douglas Walk is the next part of this large and easy track, and actually is quite boring until its final checkpoint : a swing bridge jumping over a roaring river, rolling on the grey stones of its bed. Once more we enjoy the view, but the most beautiful and impressive one is still to come ! This point of view by itself isn’t worth one hour walking…

Roberts Point Walk

5 hours of walk from the swing bridge to  the lookout platform in the heights with a view over Franz Josef glacier, and come back. The track is rocky, full of treacherous roots, and we have to cross some rivers and waterfalls on long swing bridges or by foot, and pass by a wooden stairway nailed to a cliff.
Local are crazy about helicopters, so a constant background noise coming from those huge ventilators disturb the valley all day long « TCHOUKTCHOUKTCHOUKTCHOUK… » (If there is something do to around in New Zealand, there is always a way to it with a helicopter. They like to call themselves « helicopters world wide number 1 »)

Memories from our Great Walk around Lake Waikaremoana come back to us as we climb our way up and cross some more waterfalls in a very « Indiana Jones » style. This time though, we have 10kg less on our back ! After a few hour hiking Younn is red, shiny red !

He tells us that he cannot continue further, or he won’t have enough energy to walk the way down. We propose him to wait for us here a few minutes, because we have the feeling that we’re nearly at the end. Indeed, 5mn later we reach the lookout platform ! We ask a couple who are leaving to tell Younn to join us, it would have been stupid to miss that for 5 little minutes.

From up here, we have a incredible view over all the valley and on Franz Josef glacier. It’s impressive… For a first glacier at least. We bet that someone who grew up in the Alps will see here only a small and dirty amount of ice. Well if we’re happy, we have to say that it’s not at the best of his life, and summer does not helps. We are really far away from the pure white and blue ice and beautiful pictures we can see in the i-sites, Internet and tourists brochures.
We took a few shots just before the rain starts ! We walk back quickly into the forest, to try to protect us from the gallons of water falling from the sky. We must not stay too long here, the weather can change very quickly and drasticly, the wind can start blowing, temperature can drop down, and most of all we don’t have any rain protection with us (what an idea!!!). The pouring rain tries its best to get us as wet as possible. We are wet from head to toes ! We walk our way down as fast as possible, but still have to take care of the roots and rocks and other traps of the wild. We are running a race with the clouds to stay in the sunny part of the valley and try not to catch a cold !

After a while the shower stops, and we’re back at the car, wet and wet again. Back at the YHA, we really enjoy the luxury of a hot shower and a tea next to the fire place, before slipping into our sleeping bags for a good resting night. Tomorrow we’ll visit the other giant of the west coast : Fox glacier !

 See you soon !

Tintin & Riette

Tips :

Camping in Franz Josef :

• At the YHA, fo 15$/person (Caution, those prices seems to change with the season or if you’re a member or not)

Food in Franz Josef :

• Get all you need before ! The only little supermarket is extremely expensive !

Hiking Franz Josef :

• Franz Josef Glacier Walk : 5,4km – 1:30 return from the parking – easy.
  Allow you to get close enough to the glacier by walking in the bottom of the valley. It’s the most popular walk.

• Sentinel Rock : 900m – 20mn return- niveau facile.
  Little detour on the Franz Josef Glacier walk, offers you a wonderful view over the valley and the glacier at the back.

• Roberts Point track : 12,3km – 5h30 return from the parking – hard.
  The hike we chose. It goes through a forest on a path with roots and rocks which can be slippy after rain. It offers you some amazing view on the valley and a nice view over Franz Josef glacier at the end.

• Alex Knob track : 17,2km – 8h return – hard.
  Like Roberts Point track, but on the other side of the valley. The path is really steepy at the begining. It’s the hardest walk, but probably the one that offers you the best views. If we have to come back there it’s the one we’ll do!

Get information at the i-site in Franz Josef before you start a walk. Depending on the forecast, it can be recommanded to not do certain walks.