Little note:

Glacier facts
The Franz Josef glacier is located only 200m above sea level making it one of the lowest glacier in the world. It is also located in a rain forest, there are only 3 in the world (Franz Josef, Fox Glacier and one in South America). Therefore it rains or snows nearly everyday (we saw no rain and in fact it has been quite dry and so the river beds are dry. The town records about 5 meters of rain a year for a comparison London gets about .75 meters a year. It is also the steepest slope that operates hikes. The path that the guides take on the glacier changes everyday and sometimes during the day. We had to take a different path at one spot even though we could see where they had originally planned. I asked if we cause any environmental harm by walking on the glacier. The guide says that scientists have predicted that we are 1% of the total melt daily so not a huge impact. They say that rain and sun are the key forces causing melting. The glacier in recent years is retreating however up until 5 years ago it was growing. The experts notice changes everyday. Glaciers are always moving and from our highest spot the snow would take about 6 years to reach the terminal head. All in all a very cool thing to experience.