After visiting Fox Glacier we headed back to Franz Josef in the hope that the rainy weather would dissipate in the afternoon; alas it was not to be although we knew that the next day the weather was set to improve; considering we had an afternoon helicopter hike booked to land us on the glacier, we were keeping fingers and toes tightly crossed! The following images are a mixture of our initial walk up the Waiho riverbed on that grey afternoon, and our following morning return hike prior to our actually flying onto the glacier.

Arriving at the car park for the Franz Josef Glacier we initially took the short Forest Walk (20 minutes) which leads to an excellent viewing platform. From here it is still a 1.5km walk to the closest viewing point further along the Waiho riverbed, but this platform proffered some amazing views along the whole valley. Naturally I shot several panoramic images from this viewpoint, although the image posted below was simply captured as a single frame using the 17mm TS-E.

Melinda was of course shooting using my backup 5D Mk II, equipped with the 50mm f1.2 L…hence the rare image in front of the camera…!

This final image is a highly detailed multi row panorama taken from the original viewpoint captured using the superb 70-200 f2.8L II IS USM; a heavy lens to carry on every hike, but I do feel the results justify the effort.