We drove trough the Westland National Park, which has 60 named glaciers, including Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier - two of three glaciers in the world (the other is Patagonia) that descend into a rainforest. The large amount of snowfall each season makes Franz Joseph one of the few glaciers in New Zealand that continues to grow, sometimes as much as 70 centimeters per day!
Val and I did a day hike with Franz Joseph Glacier Guides, which was quite an intense ice climb (sidenote: I asked Valerie the day before our trip if she thought we would be hiking the glacier or just walking to the base, which is hilarious in retrospect as the first five hours of the day were spent climbing through crevices and up ice stairs), but also one of the most rewarding experiences.
