Perks of the job – just your everyday helicopter ride onto a glacier

In my first week of training for my job at Fox Glacier Guiding there came the sentence 'so we'll get you up on the glacier this week on a heli hike.' Just casually, like it wasn't a big deal. Of course it's not a big deal when your very busy and popular business relies on seasonal staff to know and sell your products well; but I'm just sitting there going, 'I'm sorry, what now? Seriously?!' I don't think it had sunk in throughout the interview process that not only do I get to go in a helicopter, onto a glacier, for a guided tour, as a matter of course; but I also get PAID to do it! Woohoo!!

So there are currently three trips available – the heli hike, heli ice climbing and the terminal face walk. Up till last year there used to be walk-on access to the glacier but it's now receded so much that at the moment the only way to get up there is via helicopter. The helicopter ride takes only a few minutes to get up there and back but it provides a great view of the area and the glacier as a whole as well as being an incredible way to kick off a trip.

The heli hike has up to 3 hours on the ice and is basically a guided sightseeing walk around the best features at the time – the top of the ice melts really fast since the glacier is located in a reasonably warm climate, which means caves, tunnels and arches form quickly and disappear again within weeks. Everyone gets provided with crampons once on the ice and the guides cut steps and have heaps of stops for photo opportunities. The view and the ice formations are stunning! There is nothing quite like being able to see glacier blue ice up close, and the colours and shadows change completely depending on the level of sunlight, giving a constantly changing vista. It is such a breathtaking and awesome experience getting to go up there!

Kirsten chopping steps

I found ice climbing quite a challenge, but as this trip would usually only have 4 people per guide it can be tailored to the speed of the group on the day – so complete beginners are very quickly scaling pretty steep walls. It's really surprising how fast you get the hang of it. I'm definitely not a natural - in fact I wasn't really good at it at all – but I still managed to get over half way up the medium-skill wall. I hadn't really been interested in going on this trip as I knew it wasn't my kind of thing, but I ended up having a great day as I went along as an extra 5^th person just so I could get it done for my training. This meant that I could stand back and let the other 4 paying clients enjoy their day without the pressure to climb if I didn't want to. I also got to play photographer all day, borrowing the other people's cameras to get shots of them on their climbs which I loved being able to do!

That's me

Not me haha

We had time at the end of the day before the helicopter picked us up so we were able to go for a bit of a walk to see some features, and there was a fantastic ice cave. We were able to get in through one side by sliding on our backs through a narrow gap before it opened up to standing height, and then walked out the other side and up a pile of steps that the guides had cut. It was so beautiful!

The last trip is the terminal face walk, which is a guided walk along the public DOC track to a viewpoint near the front end of the glacier. You don't go on or touch the ice but it's a good little trip to get lots of information about the glacier and the valley. The track only takes about an hour return so I've walked it myself a few times. Sometimes after a storm has passed through with lots of heavy rain the track is closed to the public as there is a very increased risk of rockfall and of high creeks/rivers, but groups can usually still go if they are with a guide.

Any of the Fox Glacier Guides staff members can go on the trips whenever they feel like it, if there is space available on the day, so I'm definitely going to make the most of this and get up on a few more heli hikes! There is also a scenic helicopter company that operates out of our building so I'm really looking forward to maybe getting up on one of those trips at no cost as well :D The move here has so far been a great decision!