Highlight of the day:
1. Fox Glacier's helihike
2. Revisit to Lake Matheson
3. Venison Burger and Kumara fries at Red Star
Since we had decided on a helihike, we were so excited that we talked about it all the time. Although it was at a cut-throat price(at least to us), but it was worth while. The helicopter flew in to part of the glacier where there were hardest and spectacular ice caves and arches(this is not possible with normal walk hike), and we had a good 2 hours on ice, then the helicopter flew out. The whole trip took about 5 hours.
It was lunch time when we landed on Fox Glacier town, so we had something light at Cafe Neve. Then, we walked to the nearby iSite to book our accommodation. Read more about why we did not book our accommodation early and the experience of staying in Base Backpacker Wanaka here.
Since we were lucky enough to go on the earliest helihike tour(mind you, sometimes the tour will be canceled due to bad weather), so we went to Lake Matheson again. It was a totally different experience compare to last night, but both visits was worth while.
The journey to Wanaka took longer than we had expected because there were too many beautiful view points along the way. No cooking for busy day like this, so we had dinner outside. Dinner was great where we had our first venison burger and also first Kumara(Sweet Potato) Fries.
 |
| My helihike ticket |
 |
| Boots are provided |
 |
| Water proof jackets are provided too. |
 |
| Helicopter with glacier as background |
 |
| Standard checking procedure before flying |
 |
| Flying to the glacier |
 |
| Captured from helicopter |
 |
| Helicopter landed on glacier |
 |
| Our tour guide clearing the path for us |
 |
| Glacier hiking |
 |
| Exploring one of the ice caves |
 |
| This ice cave is deep! |
 |
| More ice hiking and trekking |
 |
| Returning flight |
 |
| Cafe Neve |
 |
| Inside Cafe Neve |
 |
| Pizza and Coffee |
 |
| Matheson Cafe at the entrance of Lake Matheson |
 |
| Nice environment at Matheson Cafe |
 |
| Lake Matheson's trek |
 |
| The mirror lake at daytime |
 |
| Another viewpoint |
 |
| Kapiti ice-cream for the road trip |
 |
| Poster-like scenery everywhere, view #1 |
 |
| View #2 |
 |
| View #3 |
 |
| View #4 |
 |
| View #5 |
 |
| Red Star Wanaka, a small restaurant selling delicious burgers |
 |
| Kumara fries with aioli and salsa verde. Love the sauce! |
 |
| A wild Fiordland venison pattie with Goat's Feta and Beetroot relish |
 |
Cross section of the burger
Fox Glacier Guilding
Red Star Luxury Burgers
|
