Saturday, March 22, 2025

 Saturday, March 22, 2025

Good morning Franz Josef! Wait … is that blue skies? The sun??

Here are some pictures of our treehouse apartment at The Rainforest Resort. It’s very cute and has a view of Franz Josef Glacier.












Quick get up, dress, eat breakfast and get going! It’s sunny and 54°. We started out for Franz Josef Glacier Walk Car Park. The guidebook said this was the way to see the glacier without going on a helicopter. Since we did the airplane ride back to Queenstown, we didn’t want to flirt with danger and go on a helicopter ride. We looked at the sign and it said The Glacier View was a 30 minute round trip hike. Actually they called it a 30 minute return. The hike mostly through a rainforest wasn’t bad until the last 200 yards. Then it got steep. The view was well worth it!



















Next we decided to hike
Sentinel Rock. It said a 30 minute return. This hike was definitely hard with steep switchbacks. A young hiker tried to warn us about it, but we didn’t listen. It was so steep, I almost gave up 3 times! I made it to the top. I might add it wasn’t worth the hike. It was just a side view of the glacier.

Next we drove out of town to a small quiet lake.





Next we decided to go to Fox Glacier. The clouds moved in and the glacier wasn’t visible. We had lunch at The Matheson Café.We assumed it was on Lake Matheson. No…Lake Matheson was an hour hike. We had a great lunch on the deck and skipped the hike. Our legs were like jelly from the Franz Josef hikes. 





We came back to the treehouse and decided to go in the hot tub! It felt great after the hikes!







Off to dinner at The Landing ´in Town’. It was really good. Steve and I had a rib eye steak and Jeff had salmon. 





Back to the treehouse. We have a big day tomorrow. Drive 2.5 hours to Greymouth. Return our car, take a train across the South  Island and stay in Christchurch, where in the morning we will fly to Auckland then on to Tahiti !
Good night Franz Josef🇳🇿💤💤💤


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