NZ D6: Fox Glacier and Wanaka

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
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Red Star Luxury Burgers
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