Franz Josef / Waiau is a small town on the West Coast of New Zealand. It’s on the foot of the Franz Josef Glacier, with another glacier, the Fox Glacier, close by.

Going from Wanaka to Franz Josef is about a 300 km drive. We made a few intermediate stops to have a look at some popular sights. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t playing nice most of the time, raining most of the time. I guess, the reason for that was partially, that the road was going in valleys most of the time. Once reaching and driving along the coast line the weather cleared.

Since there was still time left, after arriving at the YHA Franz Josef, we visited Franz Josef Glacier. One of the three glacier in the closer vicinity.

The next morning, the weather had cleared a bit and we went to Fox Glacier.

After that, having more time on hand, we did some smaller walks around the area. Most of them have been through luscious green forests, filled to the brim with plant life. At points, you’d think they just looked too good to be true…

Despite the fine weather on the third day in Franz Josef, the day started very lazy and we just hung about the hostel. But then something strange happened at about 4:30pm, while taking a flight with some other people near the Franz Josef Glacier.

I fell out the plane. With someone else strapped to my back. Luckily, that guy had a parachute strapped to his back. So the free fall from 16,000 feet actually turned into a skydive. Around 60 seconds of free fall at 200 kph, followed by another two minutes of kind of paragliding. And it was awesome! Totally worth it! Especially in this area, because you just had the most amazing views from up there… My instructor, who has been jumping all over NZ and has jumped about 6000 times himself in total, totally agreed on that.