FRANZ JOSEF TOWNSHIP, NEW ZEALAND

Today I left Chris and Thomas behind to do a half-day guided hike up the Franz Josef glacier, which was great. It's the steepest glacier in the world that offers commercial hikes like this, and our group did climb up reeeally high from the valley we started in. We still only went up a small ways, as the glacier goes high up into the alps. We had to use crampons on our hiking boots to dig into the ice, and our guide had to keep hacking steps into the glacier, as it's constantly melting and shifting. Considering we were trekking up a giant ice cube, it was surprisingly warm, and the glacier is actually surrounded by rainforest, which is pretty unusual.

After my hike, I met up with Chris and Thomas, and we took a short scenic helicopter flight over the area. Unfortunately, it was a windy day, which meant 1) it was bumpy, and 2) we couldn't fly too much higher than the trees, although we did go far enough to see some more glaciers and lots of mountain rivers. The best part for me was getting a helicopter view of Mt. Gunn, which was the mountain seen in the "lighting of the beacons" scene in The Return of the King.

NP: The Catherine Wheel, "Heal"