Ginnysspot: Day 9 Fox Glacier

So we awoke and Al had an agenda. He wanted to go in the helicopter to Fox Glacier. Now if anyone knows me they will know that I am not a fan of flying. I also knew this may well be a once in a life time experience..lets do it.. So Al rushed off all keen to organise our flight (really who calls a helicopter a flight???? its a nightmare) The weather was good and as Fox glacier recieves about 6 metres of rain a year we thought earlier was better.. He came back so excited. He was to go back to the office to confirm times but was about 10..We had booked the short 20 min flight and on reflection I said we should have paid the extra and done the longer flight. Al said he didn't wan to push me and he was stoked that we were going at all..

He went back to confirm and came back busting with excitement. We had been upgraded to the longer flight and would now go up to Mount Cook as well.. (GREAT!!!) We had been upgraded for free.. ( a story I can tell you face to face) and so our adventure was about to begin..

First stop though was Al wanted to buy me a waterproof/windproof jacket. So we walked up town and got that and then waited for our time (sounds so fatalistic)

We were given the safety check by a young lady with such a thick NZ accent that when she had finished Alan and I both turned to each other and said "what did she say" a worry when that was the safety check..
Into the van out to the heli pad and lucky us got the FRONT seat..o great..It got better and better..

Then we were off.. so loud, so rough (just the vibration) so high but so spectacular..so amazing. It seemed like just minutes and we were up over the glacier and facing Mt Cook ( I heard the pilot check when the next fklight was and said he wanted an extra 5-8 mins on the ice ..o cool) It was pretty amazing. We were told some of the crevaces on the glacier are over 60 metres deep (heck) they didn't look that big..I was sooo scared,,but it was breath taking..the website of who we flew with is
http://www.glacierhelicopters.co.nz/fox.asp

We landed on the glacier and seemed to be there forever. It was pretty amazing..plenty of pictures..and then back in (in the back this time) and back to the helipad..

After the excitement of that the day was pretty boring. Lunch and some pretty exciting chatting the we decided to go out to the coast and maybe see a western sunset..So off to Gillespies beach. A dirt road, a historic cemetary, wild sheep, complete with tails, a beach completely littered with driftwood, names and dates written in rocks on the top dunes, and heaps of the infamous sandflies. No way were we waiting for sunset which was still 2 hours away..back to the chalet and an easy dinner and another spa, more fire and bed..