One of the best things about traveling is the ability to be totally spontaneous. What do you wanna do today... Peruse an art gallery? Go fishing? Hop on a cross-country train?
On this beautiful sunny morning (in a region that sees 300 days of rain per year) we woke up and decided, "Let's ride a helicopter to the top of a glacier!!"
For most of our time in New Zealand, we've been pretty much ruling out activities that are hugely expensive. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel these days, and just want to make sure the money lasts until we're ready to come home. And I'm not gonna lie, I take a huge amount of satisfaction in the fact that we are pretty much EXACTLY on the target that I estimated months before this trip started.
But today, it dawned on me. What if we did our route in reverse? Would we arrive in Peru and say, "Man, hiking the Inca Trail would be cool if it wasn't a thousand bucks." Would we get to South Africa and think, "Shark diving would be fun, but we're not gonna drop $200 on it." I sure hope not.
So, we're taking a small amount out of our 'coming home fund' to cover a few more must-do Kiwi experiences. We understand that times are tough and it may be awhile before we find jobs back home. But we also recognize that we're not likley to be in New Zealand anytime again soon. What's the point of traveling all the way here if we aren't going to take advantage of it. Right?? Right!
Twenty minutes after coming to this remarkable conclusion, we were booked on a Franz Josef Glacier heli-hiking adventure!! What we had in store after a stunning helicopter ride was an outrageous afternoon of hiking around ice-formations, crawling through ice-caves, rapelling into ice-caverns and sliding down ice-slides. We were worried that the experience may be too similar to the glacier in Patagonia to be worth the money. But it was so, SO much cooler.
By the way, how insane is it that this is our second time hiking on a glacier this year? I heart traveling around the world. For lots of incredibly awesome ice playground photos, click HERE.
On this beautiful sunny morning (in a region that sees 300 days of rain per year) we woke up and decided, "Let's ride a helicopter to the top of a glacier!!"
For most of our time in New Zealand, we've been pretty much ruling out activities that are hugely expensive. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel these days, and just want to make sure the money lasts until we're ready to come home. And I'm not gonna lie, I take a huge amount of satisfaction in the fact that we are pretty much EXACTLY on the target that I estimated months before this trip started.
But today, it dawned on me. What if we did our route in reverse? Would we arrive in Peru and say, "Man, hiking the Inca Trail would be cool if it wasn't a thousand bucks." Would we get to South Africa and think, "Shark diving would be fun, but we're not gonna drop $200 on it." I sure hope not.
So, we're taking a small amount out of our 'coming home fund' to cover a few more must-do Kiwi experiences. We understand that times are tough and it may be awhile before we find jobs back home. But we also recognize that we're not likley to be in New Zealand anytime again soon. What's the point of traveling all the way here if we aren't going to take advantage of it. Right?? Right!
Twenty minutes after coming to this remarkable conclusion, we were booked on a Franz Josef Glacier heli-hiking adventure!! What we had in store after a stunning helicopter ride was an outrageous afternoon of hiking around ice-formations, crawling through ice-caves, rapelling into ice-caverns and sliding down ice-slides. We were worried that the experience may be too similar to the glacier in Patagonia to be worth the money. But it was so, SO much cooler.
By the way, how insane is it that this is our second time hiking on a glacier this year? I heart traveling around the world. For lots of incredibly awesome ice playground photos, click HERE.
Beautiful Pics! Glad you enjoyed the trip! Would love it if you could upload a couple of these to our Facebook page if you have time? www.facebook.com/FranzJosefGlacierGuides
ReplyDeleteCheers! and safe travels!