Glacier Hunting in Franz Josef

TJ had never seen a glacier. So we went to one. 

But not before doing this pose:

And seeing these amazing waterfalls. I have a memory of them being called Thunder River Falls. That sounds about right. This was just a 10 minute stretch your legs on the bus stop. Just beautiful. 

Franz Josef is a tiny town. It has one ATM and that's pretty lucky because the next glacial town over doesn't even have one. 

We discovered that the grocery store closed at about 8pm. Luckily our hostel had free veggie soup which was fabulous! 

And I do. I really do!

The accidental theme of this long journey of ours is me taking a photo of TJ taking a photo of something. But that's not the interesting part of this photo.  Two branches of the river converge here. A really blue bit and a grey bit. And you can see in the water where they come together. So interesting. 

We planned to walk to the glacier. We had walked about half way the day before and it was no big deal. But then, as it had been on and off, it rained. A lot. So we got a shuttle. Clever, because they leant out umbrellas too. 

That's the glacier. We walked through that barren landscape that would have been perfect for some epic battle scene in a movie. 

Also it seemed pretty logical to believe that giant apes or maybe dinosaurs might pop out of those trees at any point. 

Glaciers are big ice cubes.

And are surrounded by mysterious and awesome things. 

Champion!

We couldn't get too close, which is actually probably a good thing. Many people have dies due to ducking under the barrier and then having the ice and rocks shift. No thank you. It was eerie and beautiful. 

Plus we got a photo with Mr Rangerman.