eschaton

If you have to chose between heli-hiking the glacier (Fox/Josep) or swimming with the dolphins at Kaikoura, which would you pick?

mlgb

Since I see dolphins all the time at home, and we don't have any glaciers in my backyard, I would chose the former, but that's just me! I thought the flight over the top of the glacier snow fields was one of the most spectacular things I;ve ever seen, but some people just LOVE swimming with the dolphins.

wallos

We were in a similar dilemma in November when we were in NZ. However, the weather made the decision for us. Try to be flexible - although we eventually missed out on the dolphins because of high winds we were able to have an extra day at the glaciers. This gave us a perfect am helicopter snow landing followed by a pm glacier hike on Fox. For us , adults and kids aged 13 and 10 the glacier was certainly a highlight. Another wonderful daytrip for us was the Dart River Safari from Glenorchy (near Queenstown).

longhorn55

I've done both and while both were wonderful experiences, my personal favorite was the heli-hike at Franz Josef glacier. It's getting to be that you can swim with dolphins in many places now (although Kaikoura is probably better than most because they insist that you do not touch the dolphins). However, how many places can you go and hike on a glacier? Do be aware that the weather can be very iffy at the glaciers and your heli-hike could be cancelled or postponed. That happened to us, but fortunately, we had scheduled several days at Franz Josef so we were able to go another day.

stormbird

I agree with longhorn. I can recommend the half day Franz Josef glacier hike. It pretty much proceeds regardless of the weather. I found it to be quite an adventure and am so glad I did it. (I'm 50 and not the fittest of people so it was a little challenging).

Not too many people can say they have climbed up onto a glacier - it's pretty special.

longhorn55

Yes, the half-day glacier hike is a good option if your heli-hike is cancelled due to weather. When our heli-hike was cancelled, we went ahead and did the half-day hike on that day since it goes, as stormbird said, regardless of the weather. (We got to do the heli-hike the next day.) The half-day hike is a bit challenging, but they divided us up into three groups based on our ability, so you can choose how fast you want to go. The heli-hike and glacier hike are different experiences, but both are good.

eschaton

Thanks for the helpful posts.
We are at the early stage of planning our itinerary - second time to NZ after promising to return at the end of our first trip 17 years ago. This time we are bringing along our 16 and 14 year old children.
Looks like glaciers beat dolphins.