We opted for a helicopter ride up to Fox Glacier and a flyby in front of the face of Mt. Cook the highest mountain on the South Island at 12,500 or so. It rises up from the Tasman Sea with lush rain forests at the sea coast and a full bore glacier ending only another 1000 feet or so above sea level. This is the spot where one can most observe the odd combo of rain forest and glacier within a 30 minute hike. The heli ride was awesome as one might expect. There were several in the air simultaneously flying a prescribed pattern and in radio contact. It is only sunny on occasion and in the morning so there is a mad scramble to get the flights in during any window. The neve' is the area high on the glacier (approx 8000') where the snowfall accumulates and forms the glacier due to snow pressure and that is where we land to walk about. They actually had marked parking posts for the helis! It looked like about 6 spots available.
Following the heli ride we went hiking along the sea coast on the Tasman along Gillespie Beach and then into the rain forest which starts at the beach edge about 50 meters in. This West Coast area was the scene of several great gold rushes in the mid 1800's so there are numerous ghost towns just in from the coast on the glacial rivers.
The photos attached show rain forest and glaciers coverng the Fox and Franz Joseph which are the two main active towns with tourist amenities...small at they are. Our hotel the Te Weheka was very well done with a great host. Overall it was remeniscent of our visits to Alaska.
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