We woke up this morning with an outstanding breakfast: eggs, bacon and sausages, all this with orange juice coffee and tea. We felt like marquises.

After such a breakfast we had 10 minutes to check out. Normally here check out time is 10am. So we packed everything in our little daihatsu sirion (now we know each other better) and headed towards Franz Josef Glacier. We were hesitating where we should do a walk in the glacier, in the Franz Josef or in the Fox. Both are 30km from each other and strangely enough, they both grow every year!! a bit of a contradiction for glaciers that are at less than 200 meters from the sea level… Finally we decided for the Fox, so we booked a half a day trekking in the Fox for tomorrow morning. We also booked accommodation in Fox Glacier at Ivory Towers backpackers, where we are now. 

We parked in the Franz Josef parking and walked for about one hour. We even tried climbing on a waterfall in order to go closer to the end of the glacier far from the stop signal where you go on your own risk, but we decided to turn around as we will be going tomorrow with a guide. After the walk we did a second walk to the sentinel rock where you have a nice view. After that we took the car in direction to Fox Glacier and we stopped at the Matheson lake that has a dark water that reflects the mountains in an amazing way. The problem, of course, was that it was cloudy so we did not see much. We did a walk around the lake.  We ate in a very nice spot. I even took a beer. After that we went to the parking where there was kind of a shop plus food place where we have a coffee in a nice wood terrace facing the mountains (see photo). From there to where we are now. A nice backpackers in a little town (Fox Glacier) with a couple of bars, where by the way, at 8pm they have a jazz concert of a guy playing guitar. We might go 😉

Tomorrow 8.30 am to the Fox Glacier.