Amazing100: Day 34 of 100: Arriving at Franz Josef Glacier from Christchurch

Monday, October 18, 2010

Day 34 of 100: Arriving at Franz Josef Glacier from Christchurch

Bottom of Franz Josef Glacier

We rushed to the Sydney airport to fly to Christchurch, New Zealand last night after the Sydney Bridge climb. We didn’t know what to expect in Christchurch considered that they just had a 7.1 earthquake and seems some buildings were seriously damaged. When we took the taxi to downtown, seems like majority of the town are fine.

Another early morning for Selina and I because we took the Transalpine train today from Christchurch to Arthur Pass then coach to Greymouth then another coach to Franz Josef. The train was nice. I think it is very similar to the scenic train in BC/Alberta that people take from Vancouver to Jasper or Banff.

We finally arrived in Franz Josef and we checked into Glen Fern Villa. The front desk operator was super nice and we were a bit surprised that it wasn’t just a hotel room. It is a whole house with a backyard. The whole villa was surrounded by snowcapped mountains as the background and facing a huge farm.

We enjoyed the new home a bit then we rushed to visit the glacier. We are going to take the helicopter to the top of the glacier the next day so we were walking to the bottom of the glacier today. I had never seen a glacier in my life. Strange but true given i studied in Norway. Hmmmm...anyway, we saw the bottom of the glacier from far but people told us it took 1.5 hours to walk back and forth. It really didn’t look that far but when we started walking, we knew that it really takes at least 1.5 hours of intensive walking to get back and forth. It was raining a bit but we kept on walking and we finally got rewarded for the up close view of the glacier.

Personal Travel Highlights

o Avid traveler who is smart, creative, adventurous with a passion in international travel and travel planning.

o Traveled extensively to over 150 cities in 40 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North America.

o During the past 34 months since January, 2008,
- I was on over 150 flights (on average 1.1 flights per week);
- I traveled over 300,000 miles (or 482,803km) which is equivalent to flying around the globe 12 times;
- I stayed in various luxurious hotels for >300 nights (on average 2 nights per week)

o Attended universities in North America (Toronto), Europe (Oslo) and Asia (Hong Kong).

o My Top 10 Coolest Travel / Vacation Moment:
1. Currently, I am in the middle of a 100-day self-planned once-in-a-life-time travel extravaganza to Maldives, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Fiji, India, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, which is packed with some amazing activities.

2. Climbed up Ayres Rock (Uluru) in Australia. (Note: Ayres Rock is closed 80% of the time due to various reasons so it was a very rare opportunity to actually climb up the Ayres Rock.)

3. Snorkeling steps away from my water villa and dined at the world’s only under-sea restaurant at Conrad Maldives resort.

4. Zip trekking in the middle of the forest in Queenstown, New Zealand.

5. Took a helicopter to land on the top of Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand and hiked in the surrounding ice caves.

6. Enjoyed outdoor hot spring during heavy snow fall in Niseiko, Sapporo, Japan.

7. Floating on the Dead Sea in Israel with a brick on my abs while reading newspaper.

8. Being detained at the Belarus border because my visa expired by just 5 minutes which was caused by a train delay.

9. Took a 24-hour bus ride from Tallinn, Estonia back to Oslo, Norway & experienced the magnificent Northern Light inside the Arctic Circle in Norway.

10. Attracted turned-head attention from almost the whole town in Vilnius, Lithuania as one of the very few Asians ever visited the city right after strict travel restrictions were relaxed and 60 Polish School kids in a Warsaw hotel lined up outside my hotel room asking for my autograph thinking that I was Jacky Chan.